Cruciator: We Have Arrived
by AsGryffynn
Summary: REPOSTED: Taking place within Marcus Galen Sands' God Slaying Blade Works. Campione have long been believed to be the only beings on par with the gods and above mortals, but what if this wasn't how things actually were? What if there were others who could do what Campione could only once, at will? A tale of those who've triumphed over the divine with a unique power, all their own.
1. Interesting Findings From Diana Milito

**Disclaimer: All works of Type-Moon and Jo Taketsuki are exclusively their property. The work "God Slaying Blade Works" and all of it's characters is the exclusive property of Marcus Galen Sands, used with prior permission. This work has been made for entertainment only. If you wish to criticize, reviews are welcome, but you may do so constructively.**

 **Cruciator: Rhapsody of the New Legends and all it's characters, however, are still my property.**

 **Before we begin, I'll explain what Cruciator is. "Cruciator: Rhapsody of the New Legends" is the title of a finished, but not yet published original story of my creation. It's plot revolves around the reincarnation of heroic figures, wielding the powers of their legendary ancestors and joining forces in a coven, venturing into a pilgrimage, and helping others discover their powers. The powers of Cruciators restore magic to the world and lessen the animosity of supernatural and human beings towards each other, so more Cruciators means a more magical and fairer world. They fight off against many threats of origin human and supernatural alike using the power of their Cruciatrixes, the name given to their legendary weapons (like Excalibur) and attempt to find as many other heroic descendants so that they may join their cause. Their name, in Latin, can mean either "punisher", but it also meant "Crusader" to most Europeans in Ecclesiastical Latin back in the Dark Ages.**

 **So I asked fellow European Marcus Galen Sands to allow me to use his setting as a way to see how my characters would fare and to prove an interesting concept that would break Campione and Nasu rules, as taking worlds and dissecting their RULES (not the thing) apart is what I enjoy doing with fanfiction. Think of how people often find ways to turn a lawnmower into a carting engine. It's sort of what I do, and what I'm about to do. As such, expect OCs galore and an OP protagonist (he doesn't stays OP, so don't worry about it, he just got a power boost a bit before arriving that will eventually fade away). That said, this work is meant to let you take a look at my OCs and chip in your 5 cents, so don't worry if you feel something's wrong. It probably is and I'll get around to adjusting it, eventually… Also, for the sake of completeness, I'll be taking off shortly after Venus' defeat in Chapter 22 and a little after Act 1 of my story, so the characters aren't going to be introduced in your usual way.**

 **Oh, and… Better say it now so that the faint of heart may safely vacate the premises but, this fanfic will eventually encompass Lyrical Nanoha (post Force) and well… Our beloved White Devil is going to suffer her first decisive loss as an S+ ranked Ace and I'm afraid the vast majority of the cast is going to get this treatment to varying extents, Thoma and Lily-Strosek included, and sympathetic Huckebein are going to come along, so yeah… Oh, there's some Shounen Ai content… So yeah, if you want to abandon ship, you may do so now…**

… **If not, well, good news is that if you liked Yuri Lowell and Tales of Vesperia, you're very likely going to love this story's main character. Finally, there's one more thing. There'll be a Campione character that serves as a "bridge" between my and other characters in Campione. This character was chosen because of her… exotic ethnicity and that alone should be enough of a clue, "looking like fairies" aside. So, expect her to have Bella Swan-esque moments. Don't worry, I'll tone the torture down so that it's all ok in the end.**

 **So, without further ado… Let's start!**

Prologus: Interesting findings from the desk of Diana Milito

We have discussed endlessly the obvious, so it should no longer surprise anyone when I write this: Campione are supreme Kings. Campione are invincible to mortals. They're God-Slayers of unknown and unparalleled power who have defeated a deity and obtained their sacrosanct abilities. However, it seems that, for the first time in history… Or perhaps just what _we_ know about history, that may be about to change. The following, if you may disregard the almost ironic date in which I started writing it, text describes my findings after answering a call from a fellow old time friend living in the region of Gauteng, South Africa.

 _Pretoria, Gauteng, Republic of South Africa_

 _2012_

It was 21 December 2012. According to the Mayans, the world would either change or end on that day. However, nothing seemed to perturb the busy streets of the city of Pretoria as it's citizens, as colorful as the aptly named "rainbow nation" would suggest strolled about the streets, sat calmly, though sometimes not so calmly, in their cars and others simply stood in conversation with each other. The only thing that seemed to hint this day was different than others was the abundant rainfall that relentlessly showered the millions of South Africans and thousands of tourists. However, aboard an small Juke vehicle, painted in black, a woman was calmly reading a book titled " _Spanish cooking recipes"_ that was apparently, in Spanish, only paying attention to what happened around her as soon as the car stopped before a large, wrought iron gate as two security guards opened and the cab sped into the compound.

'Hey! Slow down, slow down!' the woman frantically ordered the driver, who then abruptly stopped in front of the entrance, making the woman jolt in her seat and hit her head against the roof, letting a rough "oof" out in response, before hastily taking her belongings: An small over shoulder bag and a grayish jacket that was turning white at the edges- and stepping outside under the umbrella of the one that invited her there.

'Hey, Dia!' her host, a blonde with a bob cut in a black suit and looking somewhere in her 20's exclaimed as she hugged the visitor tightly.

'Milly! Good to see you' the visitor responded, breaking their embrace as she looked at her host. Who smirked in response 'Glad you made it'.

* * *

As the two woman strolled through a dark hallway, exchanging anecdotes and tales of their adventures. They had entered the largest library in South Africa, and where now in one of the lower floors, well underground, in a research facility exclusive to personnel. They could be heard chatting away without a care in the world by many of the scholars reading. However, their conversation took a turn for the somber as soon as they neared a corner.

"So what is it that you called me for? Why didn't you attend the conference" Diana inquired.

"I'll show you soon enough." her host answered before continuing towards the huge wall of books.

The two eventually reached a large set of two doors, both of them highly ornate and decorated with red enamel and bright gold carvings. the engravings resembled a coat of arms of sorts with the words "Ex Unitate Vires" at the bottom. With an small knock from the blonde, the door opened, and both women went in.

The inside was another room full of books, albeit much larger than the other rooms and definitely much larger than Diana expected. The two started making their way inside, with the visitor noting the library's shape and it's books. It was a circular gallery with the books arranged around the walls in an outward fashion… in a way, it resembled an upturned pinnacle of sorts.

'Unbelievable', the visitor murmured aghast, her breathing suddenly a bit too shallow.

'That's not what you're here for,' the blonde complained while motioning behind herself 'what we're looking for, is over there.'

With that, the two suddenly turned to the left wing of the gallery, walking until they reached one of the shelves. The blonde then procured a book and opened it, 'this is the most ancient library in Africa, it's believed to be nearly 1700 years old and was supposedly built by mages who made it here before any other conqueror.'

The visitor visibly winced, not liking the idea that people may have been here long before any actual discoveries and that the natives had, for some reason, chosen to keep this place intact. It didn't sound like good news to her.

The blonde then turned towards her, before flipping a few pages through the book and then citing the text in one of them. ' _These heroes, of origins legendary, are the champions of God. These children of Breoghan, these Cruciators, are in the opinions of us, our protectors. They wield the power of the divine, conferred through loyalty and to end the divine itself. Make no mistake. This are still full humans, but their power is on par with the divine'_.

The visitor looked at the woman, her expression having suddenly changed from one of mild annoyance to something that could only be described as "a zombie".

'So, does that text mean what I think it does?' the visitor asked again. She seemed to be trembling in anxiety now.

'I don't really know, but you'd better have that off to Italy as soon as possible.' She then gave Diana the book before looking at the shelves 'This whole section is all the same. All books on it speak of "divinity defying mortals", "sons of Breoghan" and whatnot. I read up on this and found out that they were originally referred to as "Mil Espaine" or "Milesians", but nothing beyond the _Labor Gabala_ or other Celtic mythological books.'

* * *

 _Saint Regis Hotel, Rome, Italy_

As the cars piled up in the hotel's drive way- no doubt thanks to the large event happening there that night- the woman inside her cab lost her patience and left when she was close to the sidewalk leading up to the hotels entrance, rushing rapidly past the crowd of the many hallways that encompassed the hotel until she finally arrived at the place she had wanted to and entered.

'Excuse me miss' an amicable looking, brown haired man wearing full business attire 'what are you doing'.

'It's OK,' the woman began 'I work for the President'.

'I don't care who you work for miss, this is a black tie event' he countered, rubbing his chin as he looked at her.

The woman looked at what she had been wearing recently and noticed it was just a long sleeved work shirt and pencil skirt. Rapidly looking amongst those inside, she hoped she could be lent one by someone she know, she found an acquaintance and donned on her blazer, brushing rapidly past the security guard and into the conference room and going straight to the person she needed to deliver this to.

'Excuse me… Ms Zola! Ms Lucretia Zola!' the woman began, looking at another woman. This one was slightly tanned, with long brown hair that fell over her shoulders, a curvaceous figure and youthful face, all concealed within a red, strapless dress. The attractive female then turned around the regard the unexpected visitor.

'Do I know you?' she asked curiously.

'I'm Diana Milito, the Naples Branch Chief of the Bronze Black Cross and-'

'Oh yeah, heard about you, but why are you here? This is a leisure event.' she said, tilting her head.

'I've got something that I need to show you' the woman in the suit then produced an small book which the other started reading. Walking away from the room and into a less crowded hallway, seemingly in a pensive state as she swept through the first few pages. This lasted for about 5 minutes before the woman finally looked at the one in a suit. Diana, if she was right.

'Diana, who do you report to?'

'Chief Martello...'

'Not anymore', the woman in the dress, Lucretia, then walked away as she was followed by Diana. 'You should take a shower and change clothes though. We're going to meet Paolo Blandelli'.

* * *

 _Sardinia, Italy_

 _2013_

The only sound that could be heard in the conference room building that the large arrangement of powerful mages and paladins had chosen to congregate in after the doors to the room had been sealed was that of their breathing and the occasional tweaking of a chair. Standing, unlike the rest of the seating mages that formed a near circle, the host of the event, Paolo Blandelli started speaking…

"Six months ago," he began, visibly tense "I was made aware of a situation so life changing, that at first, I refused to believe it… but, thanks to the efforts of our brightest mages, we can confirm it now…

"The world, as _we_ know it, will some come to an end" he deadpanned.

* * *

 _Sofitel London St James, UK_

As middle aged man entered a hallway within the hotel's many floors, he was put towards an small checkpoint, with a younger security guard analyzing him with a metal detector before another, much more elderly one, led him into a room. There, his client awaited for him. A young girl with very long blonde hair and a frail body looked at him as he entered the room, it's shades down to lower the amount of light in the room. He then handed over the tablet he had with him so that the blonde girl too, could read the excerpt that had been given to her…

The man smiled when her face suddenly started to lose whatever it was that held it together and betrayed her amazement.

'It seems you've read the dossier...' he pointed out.

"This is… unexpected…" The girl said before shaking her head "I shall call father and notify him at once".

 _Ise Grand Shrine, Mie Prefecture, Japan_

The sound of an small moving compartment was the only thing that could be heard on the grounds of the Grand Shrine in this particular night. Unbeknownst to Japan, while the country slept, the keepers of the shrine moved into the Naiku shrine and stopped before an strange fragment of something, not unlike a mirror. There was a Japanese man and a Westerner leading the cart. Both seemed to have dark haircut, but the Westerner had bags in his eyes that betrayed his tiredness and his steps seemed slightly slower than those of the older Japanese man accompanying him.

'Are you sure we have to do this?' the Asian asked.

'Yes' answered the Westerner as he looked at the relic before him and saw how two guards finally arrived and pulled the lid separating the relic from them and being replaced before being put back.

'It's for the safety of these relics.'

'Well,' the Asian complained 'if so you say… But it is still a replica.'

Little did they know that the relic, a mirror the size of a car, was already well beyond their means...

* * *

It had been some time since the last time something had taken this long to unravel itself.

And no. No matter how bad it sounded, he wasn't just trying to defuse the tension that had built in his temples by trying to turn all his phrases into tongue twisters. Not on purpose, that is.

It was a sunny afternoon in Tokyo. The classes had ended three hours ago and it was Friday once again, and though difficult, he had managed to sort everything up. His new guest had gracefully laid down what had happened to him the day after it all happened. However, while he would have suffered a minor psychological breakdown, a new situation had blindsided him so horribly that any thoughts about the vindictive goddess who had used him up, beat him up and then cast him aside while he couldn't do a damn thing…!

...Had all but vanished...

Now, while he did get away with flaunting his mana reserve mystic code to everyone just to get the point across (the point being 'why it's a bad idea to mess with him or his family'), he had only had a day and a half to rest before someone had arrived at his doorstep. It wasn't anyone he knew or thought he'd have met before, but the point stood. Unlike others, this man seemed completely unfazed coming to his home without having made an appointment or anything, and while he wasn't a formal person, Emiya Shirou still found that being a Devil King would often mean organizations who knew what he was would show almost complete subservience. However, this man, who also seemed to work for an organization of sorts, given his attire, had treated him and the conversation as any businessman would a conversation about the stock market.

It was weird, but that wasn't it... The man had brought far more interesting news with him. News that could potentially give him what he wanted most…

 _A way back home._

He could still recall how he went on to take an entire hour all for himself. His demeanor, didn't even seem nervous like those that had come into his office to negotiate with him…

After all, even Manaka and Kaida seemed to notice…

 _Seven days earlier_

' _Oh, I see you've managed to procure a very fine specimen' the man in the suit dully noted as he entered the room Shirou used as office and took in the sight of the dragon's head that he had hung from high on the wall 'Really nice indeed'._

 _Shirou arched his eyebrows, wondering why he was looking in awe and admiration rather than fear before taking his seat and looking intently upon the man..._

' _Umm, would you like something to drink' the King of Steel offered. Normally, he wouldn't have shown that hospitality to a visitor, but since his usual intimidation tactics weren't working, it wouldn't hurt to try and have a more normal conversation with the man, especially since a drink might ease him up a little and make him less assertive if he wanted to negotiate something with him._

' _Mmm… Do you have black tea?' the man asked before crossing his legs and taking a device from his pocket, touching it's surface a few times and reading from the screen. It probably was a smartphone, PDA or something along those lines, as he seemed to be reading something intently._

' _Sure…' Shirou nodded before pressing the intercom in his desk and speaking to the contraption 'Could someone bring a cup of black tea to the office? Thanks'._

' _Quite a nice office you've got here too'_

' _Yeah, it was my sister that choose this place' Shirou answered before leaning on the table slightly 'Now, may I ask why you're visiting, Mr. Tanioka?'_

' _Yes… well…' the man adjusted his glasses before pressing something on his phone's screen some more and then pocketing it 'I believe I needed to give you something that is… Not quite a warning, however, it's more of a 'news flash' if you would…'_

 _The redhead's interest seemed to grow with that remark as he leaned his head on his left hand_

' _Go on'_

' _Alright then' the man continued, adjusting his blue tie before his face turned slightly more serious 'As you may know, you're now amongst the most powerful beings on Earth. A Campione or god slayer is not only a devil king, he or she is also a supreme ruler. He's immune to magic and commands the authorities of those deities that have fallen before him… You know that now, right?'_

 _The King of Steel looked taken aback. How did he know all that? Was he someone from the History Compilation Committee? Was he allied to another mage organization? Was he a spy of sorts? And why wasn't he nervous? Weren't most normal humans intimidated by the presence of a god slayer alone?_

' _Before you ask, yes, I do know about you' the man smiled brightly, clasping his hands together 'worry not however. I'm not from the Committee but have some support, especially information that they provided me with. I also do not really belong to another magical association nor am I a spy. However, I do work for an organization of the highest caliber that, at least for the time being, commands more power than you do'_

' _And that would be'_

' _Ahem… That'd be, well… The Government of Spain'_

 _The young Emiya's left eye twitched briefly, betraying his disbelief at what his visitor had just said. 'The Spanish Government? You mean they are aware of all this?'_

' _Does it surprise you' Tanioka asked, leaning back in his chair._

' _N-not… Not really…' Shirou admitted._

' _Alright then, so… Basically, what I wanted to talk to you about was about something different from Campione… I believe I should start from the beginning…' Tanioka said before leaning on the table before him and closing his eyes._

' _During the dark ages, there existed a vast amount of gods that dwelled on this world, together with other supernatural species and humanity. Unlike now, they all coexisted peacefully and prospered together. Obviously, there were conflicts at times, but nothing that couldn't be fixed without anyone dying. However, as more humans decided to solve problems by force, there was an upsurge in the numbers of Campione…_

… _Eventually, this led to an enmity between gods and the so called 'devil kings' as some Campione became cocky and started hoarding power… A particular deity, which we know belongs to a pantheon from Northern Europe but know very little of its origins, created a curse to bolster the strength of the gods by doing away with every restraint and limitations they may have had. This was what gave rise to what we nowadays call 'heretic gods'._

 _However, a few gods still had qualms about surrendering their sanity and mental stability to fight increasingly aggressive god slayers, who had now become a threat not just to the gods themselves, but also to humanity and the supernatural. It is known that a particular couple, a magician woman and a male beast tamer, were responsible for disappearances in an ancient village in modern day Spanish Basque country and the abuse and misuse of a species of sacred beast that put many towns in the same region in jeopardy, respectively._

 _So, because of this, supernatural species all withdrew into uninhabited lands over the years until they disappeared completely nearing the 1900's. But, when this all started, humanity not only accompanied them, but some of them stood their ground and attempted to resist the Campione… With disastrous results._

 _The remaining gods that had not succumbed to their bloodlust and surrendered themselves to war, instead opted to seal themselves in a world they created for themselves, a 'refuge' one might even say. However, the remaining ones chose to simply hide and live amongst humans without raising suspicion about their true nature. Before this, however, these 'true gods' had seen the carnage Campione left in their wake, so they choose to do the only thing they could to help humanity._

… _At their request, a group of forge gods came together to create 207 great weapons of divine origin, able to purge the 'heretic curse' of heretic gods and return them to their former selves and also able to extract divinity and authorities… And by extract, I mean 'rip authorities and divinities off their bodies'. When this is done, even gods will cease being gods for good and become normal humans with nothing but very high magical potential. However, never again will they be gods again. Also, this weapons are on par with authorities and… They pose a threat to Campione themselves…_

 _But that's not it. Their wielders were chosen from a group of people who were dedicated to a pantheon and held great faith in these gods. They were chosen to wield the weapons because of this. Even then, that's not where things end…_

 _You see, while now, humanity had a means of fighting off the Campione, their numbers weren't low enough to also keep heretic gods at bay, so they the gods did the only thing they could to help them. The forge god, Hephaestus, not only opened a shrine in Greece to become a blacksmith to human heroes that were willing to join the war against Campione. Eventually, Hephaestus decided to confide his secrets to many ancient blacksmiths, which allowed them to create divine weapons in unprecedented numbers. These weapons were, because of their ability to 'excise' the divinity out of their opponents, baptized as 'Cruciatrixes' in Latin. Their name meant 'punisher' or 'Crusadress', for a female crusader. Their wielders, were, accordingly, baptized as 'Cruciators'._

 _In the end, these beings worked alongside the gods and slayed heretic ones, alongside Campione. Because of their wish to fight, a golden age for gods, supernatural beings and humanity allowed humanity to prosper rapidly from 1100 to the early 1900's. During that time, the number of Campione plummeted, and most went into hiding to preserve their lives. The gods no longer needed to conceal themselves, as they could once more live freely, knowing they had powerful protectors and having developed a deep desire to fight to protect them as well, rather than a wish to just fight off god slayers. It was the Cruciators who started the crusades which gave them and their weapons their names and they were the ones that prevented the King of The End from being awoken during the Middle Ages.'_

 _Well, that was a lot to digest. At least that's what Shirou thought. To think that a simple visit from a man he barely knew would bring so much to the table. But one thing remained in his mind, bothering him…_

' _So, Tanioka-san, what is it that you came to tell me besides this story' Shirou now seemed uneasy, rather than perplexed. This didn't sit well with him. He was the god slayer in this room, he was the one that had taken a dragon's head as a trophy. So why was he so uneasy in the presence of this man now? 'I mean, you probably have more to say, don't you'_

 _Tanioka smiled, straightening up before he smirked 'You seem to be far more interested now, aren't you?'_

 _Shirou nodded._

' _Very well then…' the visitor begun 'I have come to warn you about the Cruciators'_

' _What is there to warn me about?'_

' _There is a particularly powerful coven of Cruciators. Twenty of them, in fact… And they'll be coming here soon to initiate a recruitment campaign for Japanese Cruciators'_

 _Shirou's expression visibly dropped and he found himself attempting to regain his wits. These guys were a threat to Campione like him, and they were headed HERE?! Could his luck seriously get any worse? He just came out of being brainwashed for crying out loud! Why did they need to come here? Had the gathering of Campione somehow brought Japan to attention? Could it be they were after him because of his reality marble? His projections? Ilya perhaps? After all, why would they come here to recruit more of their kind?_

' _Well, Tanioka-san…' Shirou trailed off, swallowing to try and make his voice somewhat clearer, though from the way he sounded, it wasn't doing much… 'I thank you for your visit, and do not worry. I'm more than capable enough of protecting myself and my guests…'_

 _Tanioka nodded, but his expression had turned somber and he had rested his hands in his lap. Before speaking, he took in a deep breath and closed his eyes 'Emiya-san, that's not what worries me… Nor what I came here for'._

 _The perplexed look returned to the devil king's visage again and his hands, which were rested on the table, started trembling slightly 'T-then what did you come here for?'_

' _Well, first… That's an arrogant description of your powers… As I said, these people are Campione fighting machines. In the same way that they call your kind 'devil kings', they call their kind 'saint kings'. They are warriors whose abilities and mindset is exactly what they need to slay people like you. Even with that new magecraft you wield, you wouldn't be able to do so much as see from which direction they attacked. The gap in power between them and you is like the very gap between heaven and hell…_

… _However, as I was saying… They did come here for someone… But not you'_

 _Shirou thought for a second. If they didn't come here for him or his liege, then who would they-_

 _His mind suddenly froze and unbeknownst to him, his expression betrayed his feelings as he stared empty eyes at the messenger before him, not even registering how he, with his eyes still closed, nodded._

'… _They're here for Godou, aren't they?'_

 _The executive nodded 'Indeed. Him and two of his allies… Even though one of them can't be bound more than she already is…'_

 _Shirou's expression changed from one of utter confusion into a frustrated one before he abruptly stood up and pounded his fist into the table, causing the guest to jolt, but nothing beyond that 'What do you mean by that? Who is it they're after? Are they recruiting someone from Godou's current allies? If so, who?!'_

 _The man sighted, looking to one of his sides 'one of them is one of his latest non Japanese allies. The other is… Well, you can guess on your own. There's very little I can tell you that will make it easier for you to digest'._

 _Once more, the redhead's thoughts swirled within his head, confusing him and making him feel an strange mix of both awe and fear himself. Great. Now it was he who was feeling uncomfortable… And within his own home to boot! Fate must have a great sense of irony, right?_

 _However, the more he thought about it, the clearer the picture became for him, and he suddenly found himself checking mental lists… The last one that was not Japanese. If what he had heard was right, he first met Erica, then he went on further to meet Yuri Mariya, then the two were joined by Liliana Krancjar, and finally, Ena Seishuuin…_

 _And someone who couldn't be closer if she tried… Only one person fit that criteria.,, And he found himself turning to the window of his office and looking at the garden, giving the messenger his back as he took in a deep breath and hoped with all his might he was wrong and this was just a cruel joke, because he himself knew what Godou would feel like if he knew what he was thinking about was true… He certainly did not want him to go on a rampage and then wind up with his head as a trophy in someone else's office. His fellow king sharing the same fate as the dragon he took down would be an hilarious sight indeed, but it also secretly made Shirou's breath feel a bit too short. This was not what he was expecting. That's for sure. 'The ones they're looking for…'_

'… _They're… Liliana-san and… and…'_

 _Tanioka chipped in, intending to finish the phrase before the devil king had a mental breakdown 'and Kusanagi's own little sister, Shizuka.'_

… _So what…_

 _Tanioka spoke again 'I came to warn you for obvious reasons, but I wanted to warn you about this as well because Kusanagi Godou seems to trust you a lot and you would be able to deliver this message and be taken more seriously than me since what I've told you is… Pretty complicated.'_

' _I see…' was all Shirou could muster to say as he closed his eyes and fell into a pensive state again, only being taken out of his stupor by the sound of the door opening, prompting him to turn around and see Kaida bringing a cup of tea in a tray for his guest._

' _Oh, Kaida. I see you brought Mr. Tanioka's tea' Shirou feigned a small smile for the Hime-Miko as she entered the room. Apparently, she also felt something was odd with the man who had visited him, as she eyed him from the door before making his way to him and handing the cup to him._

' _Thank you,' the guest said, smiling, as the Hime Miko maid slowly pulled out of the room, all whilst bowing and then closed the door as she left._

 _As he sipped his tea, the man smiled 'a Hime Miko, right?'_

 _The King of Steel nodded silently again._

' _I forgot to tell you… They have male counterparts allied with the Cruciators. The pilgrimage that will be coming here has at least three of those and one undergoing training. They call them 'Saint Emperors' or alternatively, 'Sankt Kaisers'. Pretty nice, right?'_

' _Are their abilities any different?' the redheaded swordsman questioned, arching an eyebrow at the latest statement._

' _Well, yes… But they call their gifts 'talents' instead and they're somewhat more potent' Tanioka explained 'Their version of spirit vision, known as 'Librascope' has a 97 percent accuracy rate and takes less than 6 seconds to connect on virtually everyone. I heard about your skirmish with the deranged love goddess… Such an ability would've probably been… Most useful, for you and your allies it seems…'_

' _Yeah…' Shirou said, trailing off as he thought about what was on his platter now. Compared to this, even his brainwashing seemed to become a minor nuisance by comparison… 'Now I have a bunch of crazy old men with god slaying weapons that want to kidnap one of my friends' little sister and one of his girlfriends…' he whispered to himself._

' _Umm Emiya-san'_

' _Mmm? What is it?'_

' _Umm, I think you have misunderstood me… The party that will be coming is pretty much around you and Kusanagi-san's age, both physically and literally. It is very likely they'll begin their campaign by posing as students in you and Kusanagi's school. Even their party makeup isn't much different from you or Kusanagi's party… Of the 20 members, only five are male and the other 15 are female. Three of the boys have their own 'guardian knight' and the strongest, which they call the 'God's Gift' has 11 such knights guarding him. I also believe that his mother may be a part of the party. She may try to infiltrate the school as an English language teacher'. Tanioka concluded before putting the cup on the desk and standing up before stretching briefly 'Alright then, time runs short and I have to leave now, but thanks for your time, King Shirou, it's been a pleasure. However, I am afraid there's more that you'll hear from them directly when the time comes. Just try not to be too combative, alright?'_

 _Shirou smiled and stood up, guiding the man towards the door 'Thanks for the help, Tanioka-san. Do you know the way back?'_

' _Sure, I'll be alright. Farewell then, King of Steel. Take care of yourself.' Tanioka bowed curtly before leaving as Shirou closed the door to his office behind him._

 _And with that, just as abruptly as he arrived, the man in the suit, Mr. Tanioka, left… And good thing he did, because he wouldn't have liked to see what was about to happen. As Shirou turned around, he walked towards the window and looked to his left at the tray that was concealed by the curtains before he moved over and stood over it… Then he threw up._

 _What was going on now?_

* * *

It was only a couple of hours later that Shirou had regained his wits and left the office straight towards his bedroom, though the following day, both Kaida and Manaka had asked him if he had been expecting any visitors. All he could say was that he had received important information from him and left it at that. Ilya hadn't really insisted on being informed about what happened, crossing it off as just another visit from a Committee mage or something like that. However, Shirou himself was finding the visit odd. After all, why wasn't that man affected in any way by the overwhelming power that his little trophy gave off? Why did he seemed so unconcerned with dealing with a Campione and most importantly… How was the Government of Spain involved in this?

So that had brought him back to his office in the middle of a lazy, sunny Friday afternoon while Ilya had retreated to her room to play with something… She called it a games' console, and while Shirou had heard of those, he never really found himself drawn to them and the entertainment they provided, though he heard they were pretty popular with youth his age. Apparently, Ilya had taken a liking to shooter games, so she wound up getting one of the less popular consoles for herself. Once more, the young redhead realized he couldn't understand the mind of his own sister.

An interesting thing to note, however, was that neither the goddess nor the resident divine ancestor seemed to have noticed the visit. He decided not to tell them. After all, what kind of guest would he be if he didn't see towards their safety while they visited?

That said, he still found himself at a loss on what to do next. Right now, he was trying to piece together anything that might suggest magical activity and the Governments of the European Union. He had asked for information from the Committee, but so far, he had nothing to go by… It seemed there apparently were some documents that might have been related to what he was looking for, but they were mostly classified. While the Committee was sure they could move some strings and have some of them declassified, it would take a couple days and he didn't want to wait with how fast things were changing.

So far, however, he did have at least one lead. For some reason, a member of the Witenagemot had been in Cordoba, in Spain, and had documented some interesting findings in a log not unlike the one that described what had transcurred when he first arrived in this world. Shuffling around the many papers that littered his desk, he found the report again, reading it once more to remind himself about what he knew about this new situation.

 ** _A report on the strange phenomena surrounding the reemergence of the Cruciators, delivered to the Witenagemot approximately 6 months after the Naples incident._**

 _As with the previous report regarding the emergence of the eight Campione, Emiya Shirou or his companion, Ilya von Einzbern, there is very little information on Amaranth Graves prior to his appearance in Valencia. Most of the information regarding him appears to be classified and all forms of audio and video recordings appear to have been seized by the British Intelligence Service MI 6 in cooperation with Spanish Intelligence Service CNI, though observation of him and his entourage has provided some information, not unlike with the Eight Campione and his companion._

 _From the looks of it, Mr Graves appears to be a user of a strange form of magic. Its properties seem to be elemental influenced and extremely potent. The school in and on itself seems to be uncategorized. However, some records do confirm the existence of spells similar to those used by the youth in antiquity. His powers appear to rely on his connection with an ancient relic of great power, but it seems it's dependent on him as well, creating a symbiotic relationship between the mage and his relic. His strengths seem to be his versatility and adaptability, with the mage showing impressive physical prowess, from being able to uproot large structures, ranging from pillars to an entire stone cabin, to being able to move at impressive speeds, breaking the sound barrier when under particularly persistent attacks. He also seems to be capable of self sustained flight. However, the speed at which he was seen moving indicates a new way of flying that differs from that used by Witches. He also seemed to possess a different array of solar and earth elemental abilities, from being able to manipulate earth and fire at will, to being able to control the density of earth and triggering the flow of mantle plumes, to disastrous results. A side effect of this was that, far off to the Southwest, the Teide peak seemed to experience a period of enhanced activity and Andalucia itself was struck by a 6.7 moment magnitude earthquake the next morning. We've been able to confirm however, that unlike most mages nowadays, Amaranth Graves does not use Hermetic magic._

 _Regardless of this, what we do know is that five days ago, a towering presence was detected within the city. Its description does not fit that of a Heretic God, as the entity appeared to be highly animalistic and savage. According to witnesses, however, its power was either on par with the most powerful Heretic Gods or well above them. The battle lasted no more than 17 minutes. Approximately 270 people died on that day. The CNI was, apparently, able to cover up their deaths as well as the large scale destruction by hiding behind the cover provided by the earthquake that struck the city the following morning. A large promontory which existed north of the city was removed during the skirmish and many buildings were destroyed in the aftermath of the battle. The people who died appeared to have been mauled, slashed apart or even pulverized by a blunt object of immense weight travelling at very high speeds. Even then, however, hypothermia seemed to have been the main cause of death amongst the innocent Cordobans. The buildings and streets appeared to have been hit by heavy shrapnel and corroded into near collapse. Frost and some hail appears to have formed near the pulverized edges of the ruins and some of the fissures on the street seemed to have been covered in permafrost and ice and lava stalactites were found near the promontory remains. A large fault filled with permafrost also ran all the way to the center of the promontory before it starts to shrink until it vanishes completely. As the fault shrunk smaller, the amount of permafrost plummeted and large amounts of lava seemed to fill it, with the fault at its widest being filled with permafrost and bordered by thick slabs of ice and filled at its smallest with thick lava, with major volcanic rock formations bordering the shrinking fault. Temperatures across Spain also appears to have plummeted to winter lows in spite of Spain being in the middle of spring. It should also be made known that normal people within the city seem to be developing the ability to use magic, though only a few do and even less seem aware of it. From this, we can infer that the entity, while not a Heretic God and most definitely not a Campione, seems to command veritable power which surpasses even that of the Heretic Gods and god slayers, and that, by eliminating the threat single handedly, Amaranth Graves seems to be a powerhouse whose powers' origins are, so far, unknown._

 _Just like before, there were no mage witnesses to provide details on the incident. However, what is known is that he appears to have a party of another 10 members who_ – _given their ability to withstand the events of the battle and who seemed to have established a perimeter around the beast to limit the scale of his destruction_ – _seem to wield an immense amount of power comparable to his own, especially since it's reported that, at least once, the creature attempted to breach through the perimeter, only to be forced back in through brute force from two of the party members, which means his companions are also similar in strength to Mr Graves._

 _What happened afterwards also seemed to echo the incident where the Eight Campione emerged, as the party made its way towards the United Kingdom and were met in the port of Dover by Black Prince Alec, also known as Alexander Gascoigne, the British Campione. Unlike before, this battle seemed to go differently. As expected, there were actually many mage witnesses, though the vast majority were immediately detained by members of the UK Home Office and taken to MI 6 HQ for further questioning, but at least two seemed to successfully avoid being detained and could provide details on what happened after the encounter._

 _After engaging in a brief conversation with Black Prince Alec, it seemed one of the party members, a woman with blonde hair which we identified as Chelsea Elizabeth Cameron proceeded to engage in a duel with the British Campione. When questioned by one of our investigators in the town, the Black Prince said that he had been looking forward to a duel with a 'Cruciator'. It was impossible for them to question the woman or any of the party members, as they seemed to be surrounded by a large amount of admirers and further protected by Home Office and MI 6 agents. Given her name and the heavy presence of the government in the fields near Dover, there is a remote possibility the woman is related by blood to the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Even so, this didn't seem to deter her as she eventually engaged the Black Prince in battle. Attempts to dissuade her opponent from engaging her were, predictably, futile._

 _Our suspicions regarding the strength of his party members was confirmed when the woman used an unknown spell to change into a form of armor resembling a dress and summoned an ornate sword in combat. Much to our surprise, she finished the battle after she used a very powerful attack whose power would've been impossible to muster by a run of the mill mage, being more on par with a particularly powerful Authority and perhaps even stronger than many, as the British Campione's Authority, the Labyrinth, was used to seal her and her party away, only for her to blast it apart with the attack. The Black Prince then proceeded to use an Authority known as the 'Black Thunder' that was also overwhelmed in a death match between the two, with the Black Prince coming around unscathed, but apparently too drained from the attack to engage any further. Much to the witnesses' surprise, the party then withdrew quickly, boarding a large limousine that seemed to belong to the government, before being escorted away by a caravan. The remaining witnesses observed they were headed to London. When efforts were made to question Gascoigne, the man simply used magic to disappear from the field that had been the place of their battle._

 _Our agents managed to catch up to them, trailing them into Central London and seeing the party for the last time departing from the limousine and entering 11 Downing Street. This may hint that our suspicions about Ms Cameron where right and she may hold an important position within the magical community of Britain, even though most of the Witenagemot has been unable to investigate further. We suspect that, given her skirmish with the resident Campione, the woman may be allied or have aligned herself with the Royal Arsenal._

 _Another thing that further strengthens our theory of Ms Cameron's relationship to The Right Honourable is that the Prime Minister apparently arrived an hour and a half later at the residence. This is remarkable because of his arrival time, at GMT 15:31, which means that the Prime Minister must have left his office earlier than usual to attend to more urgent matters and which seems to highlight the severity of this situation._

 _Neither the Prime Minister, nor the party left the house until the following morning. However, The Right Honourable's wife, who had been out at the time, alongside a few MPs and his Chancellor seemed to arrive at the place. All of them stayed in the house until at GMT 5:17 next morning, where the party left. Given that they seemed to be in a groggy but otherwise healthy state, it seems fairly likely that the party were guests overnight at the Prime Minister's residence. Mr Cameron left for home at the same time as usual in the morning, followed by the MPs and then his children who were headed for school._

 _Even then, the party was overheard discussing something very important. Some of them seemed to discuss going to the airport, but what really perked up our interest was their destination. From the looks of it, the unknown 'Cruciator' and his party, all of them potentially Cruciators as well, will be heading towards Japan after an unknown amount of time spent in Durban. It is not known what it is that they're planning on doing once they arrive, however, just like before, our forecast is pretty bleak at the moment. Two Campiones in the same country should have meant chaos and instability for all of East Asia, but apparently, this wasn't the case as Emiya Shirou proved a rather benevolent king. However, given the demeanor of this new group, we cannot tell for sure if they will also try to make peace with either or both Japanese Campione, but from what we've been able to gather on Cruciators, they were known for slaying tyrant devil kings and gods who amassed power for egotistical reasons at the expense of the common and magical populace alike. Whether this means the Japanese god slayers are safe or not is something we will only be able to find out once they arrive on the island for the first time._

As Shirou looked at the report, he couldn't help but smile a bit. A few months ago, this was what someone else would have been doing with _his_ report no doubt. So it came as a surprise… After all, that… well, _he_ was the one reading it and he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. What if he was the one blowing this threat out of proportions? Wasn't he regarded as a ruthless king too? What if these guys were the same? Wasn't he being a bit… prejudiced? He certainly would have to ask someone… Perhaps Guinevere. Neither she nor Tiamat seemed to have reacted to the new state of affairs negatively, so perhaps they could help him with this.

Or perhaps he should simply go and ask Illya. The second opinion of his sister may be far more important.

'Shirou, could you come for a bit!' he heard her ask from the outside and he realized that perhaps he should just tell her now.

* * *

 _Val d'Aran, Spain_

The Aranese mountains were a peaceful place where people stopped to rest often. The deep mountain valleys and forests within made for an idyllic camping place. However, within one of the clearings in one of the many forests of the mountains, a young couple was tending to a fallen figure. The girl looked about 13 years old. She wore only a white sundress and had hair as pale as her outfit. Her eyes were shut, teared up and visibly swollen underneath her eyelids. However, the most shocking thing was the blood. Her dress was stained with blood all over it. While there were no visible wounds in her body, it was obvious that she had been through a lot. Her torn dress talked for itself.

'I… I still can't believe he would do something like this' said a female as she watched over a fallen figure. Her green, long sleeved dress had been lightly stained with the darkening blood as she cradled the girl in her arms.

'This is to be expected of him. She was lucky to have made it to the border. That man wouldn't have left her alone if he hadn't realized he couldn't hopefully chase her here and expect to leave alive' answered a male.

' _W-why…'_ was all the girl herself could muster.

The male paced back and forth impatiently around a figure that lay on the ground close to him. Though his partner was tall, his powerful yet slender build made him far more imposing. His long, navy blue dress coat and the wild bangs of his dark blue hair contrasted with the woman's own green, long sleeved summer dress and her blonde bob haircut. Their faces did not seem that different though, as both had very soft features.

And the third, was the downed figure in question. From the looks of it, she seemed to be whimpering silently.

She looked dainty. She looked frail.

But most importantly, from the looks of it, was that she was barely hanging on to her life…

She seemed to be crying silently, and unbeknownst to her rescuers, she was secretly lamenting her inability to protect herself. Apparently, someone had attempted to kill her. That someone certainly stopped as soon as he entered the country. That much could be inferred from how close they were to the border with France and the lack of any overwhelming presence nearby. However, whoever had gone after her had obviously done his or her best to ensure the girl would die. After all, even if he or she couldn't finish her off, she was obviously too beat up for her to have managed to live this long, yet somehow, the girl was still breathing, though it seemed like she could simply close her eyes and then die right there in that very clearing if she wasn't healed right away…

The good thing was that there was a healer on the way…

The problem, however, was that said healer had told them that whoever had done this remained nearby, and if she tried to get through, the one who did this might engage her. This was pretty problematic given the current scheme of things. So the only thing they could do was take the woman out of the place and to the Estate where they could heal her. The man leant down and smiled as he whispered calmly into her ears.

'It's OK. We'll get you out of this, promise'

His partner smiled slightly at the man's reassurance. However, it seemed to comfort the girl in her arms.

'You promise?' the girl asked.

'Of course' he concluded, picking the girl up and then lifting her up bridal style before he started to walk into the woods, his female companion trailing behind him as they left the small clearing. It seemed that the one who had attempted to hurt the woman was nowhere to be found, or he simply did not dare cross paths with the three.

Attempting to kill a deity, after all, was punishable by death in Spain… And all of Continental Europe, save Italy, for that matter. Then again, some people weren't known for their sense of self preservation. God slayers chiefly among them.

After all, if they could slay a deity, then what could stop them? Nothing, at least as far as most of the world's magi were concerned…

 _As if things could ever be that easy…_

* * *

However, right now, it was the Witenagemot that was in a panic. Apparently, a large number of powerful entities was finally making their move. As the large group of mages made their way to the meeting room at the end of one of the many hallways within the Witenagemot's headquarters, the onlookers couldn't help but feel that it would be best to stop what they were doing, withdraw to their homes or quarters and wait for the meeting to end, and for the heads of the council to disclose what had happened behind closed doors to everyone in the organization.

As the last of the mages made its way into the closed doors of the antique meeting room, the different members settled down. In the upper side of the table, with a curtain draped Victorian window behind her, sat a girl in a wheelchair. She had pale blonde hair and unhealthy looking white skin. Her body, which seemed pretty frail already was showing signs of a stress it hadn't been designed to handle and bags were forming under her eyes. Many were aware that the girl's physical presence wasn't a normal occurrence even within the walls of their sanctum, so her presence meant something really serious was happening. The fact that, to the knowledge of only a few, she had stayed up last night to browse very brief records regarding the group of their interest only added to the sense of foreboding that everyone in the room felt, making itself painfully obvious in the oppressive air that pervaded the meeting chamber.

Her health also decayed faster if she didn't sleep. It wouldn't be surprising if the foremost Princess of Heaven caught a cold or something that would confine her to her quarters. However, even through her half closed, tired eyes, she could easily start the meeting.

'Alright then,' the Princess started, resting her chin on her now clasped hands 'can someone give us all a very short briefing of the situation?'

In response, a middle aged man wearing eyeglasses stood up, folder in hand and tugged in his suit's tie before opening it 'Very well, Princess. It seems that the ones they call 'Cruciators' have finally made their long awaited move.'

'Oh really?'

'Oh, indeed! It seems that they returned to the Russian capital.'

'Moscow, you mean, right?'

'Yes. They returned three nights ago. Today, however, they finally seem to be ready to leave for the place we feared they would go to next. We registered a change of plans at some point, so please, forgive us for the misleading previous record we gave you.'

'Never mind that.' the blonde nodded curtly 'Go ahead.'

'Very well then. We detected that the Cruciators, whose party is of about 20 members were headed for King Shaka International Airport at 5:38 PM and given police escort, all while aboard a limousine. At 8:23 PM, they boarded a SAA flight, having booked all of the business' class for themselves. The flight is heading towards Tokyo's Narita Airport as we speak and will be arriving tomorrow morning at 8:49 AM. So far, neither of the Japanese kings have been made aware of this. We have contacted the Copper Black Cross and the Bronze Black Cross so that they'd warn their contacts in the country, both of which serve under the seventh god slayer, Godou Kusanagi.

'Anything else that might be of interest?'

'No miss, not at all' concluded the man with a sigh before sitting down again.

The blonde girl sighed in exasperation herself. This wasn't looking good. So far, she had managed to keep a calm façade and not look weak, but even her will was eroded when the man mentioned that they'd be arriving in Japan tomorrow. Most importantly, there was no way to be sure if her mages would arrive before they did. As it stood, most of the odds in the current situation were stacked against her…

Not good. Not good at all… Especially not given the current developments. Well then, guess she'd better cut things short while she could… Otherwise, things could go awry pretty quickly. It would do well to everyone if she dismissed them all and declared the afternoon free for the time being. She had… Errands to run.

Standing up, the blonde girl stood up, clearing her throat before speaking out.

'Alright then' she started, fixing the neck of her dress jacket before continuing 'I declare this meeting over. Also, everyone is discharged from all duties for the rest of the afternoon and until further notice'.

Before anybody could move however, someone in the public raised his hand before speaking 'Umm miss, what are you planning to do?'

The blonde looked pensive, albeit briefly, before responding 'I have… Business to attend to with someone else…'

Without any other questions asked, the people started to vacate the room and the halls rapidly filled up, crowded with people returning to their homes and living quarters. The girl herself simply dusted herself up before leaving the room, being the last person to do so. While her constitution was fairly weak, she could still muster the strength to climb a couple stairs and visit the only man she knew would have some information regarding recent developments. Or at least, so she hoped.

'I know we don't get along…' she whispered to herself as she went through the doors of the meeting quarters 'but I really need your help now, Black Prince'.

Suffice to say, to admit this wasn't easy for Alice Goddodin, the Highest Witch in the heavens and speaker of the Witenagemot… But she had no choice.

 _When mankind's will refuses to yield to any challenge, no matter the gap in power or scale, miracles happen…_

 _Such is the life of those who have found a home in the Primeval Lands, a land secluded from the rest of the world, one where magic and civilization still live and flourish together, away from the decadence of the outside world and guarded by the might of the Cruciators._

 _The Cruciators are humans with an unyielding will, who through the power of their blood royal, can recreate miracles time and again. Cruciators are the protectors of all things magical and champions of the deities. In exchange for their protection, deities bestow blessings and everlasting peace, happiness and prosperity to the Primeval Lands. It is because of this that Cruciators, who protect the gods, can also be regarded as the guardians of magic._

 _However, their road to restore magic is a long one, and not many understand their goal, therefore, it is, with the blessings of the believers, whether in deities, or magic, that they set upon the world where most were born to restore the magic and peace, purging all heretics, divine and human alike, hunting fiends, stray beasts and devils who threaten the peace… By hunting the source of the decadence, the reviled Campione, slayers of gods who usurp their authorities and have tainted the name of the deities whose powers they've taken as their own, all while conquering themselves, they hope that one day, the outside world can know magic and flourish once more… It is up to the Cruciators to stop them, protect the gods, magic, the beings that depend on them and mankind from their machinations and make a peaceful world for everyone…_

* * *

 _Russian Far East Airspace. Sakhalin Oblast, Russian Federation._

The night over the tranquil and vast expanses of the Russian Far East was something that was a marvel in its own right. The small, quaint towns in the Russian countryside, and the occasional sleepy city, lethargic for its weather and remoteness were perfect places to lay back and relax, enjoying the relative peace of the world's largest country. However, its skies were known to be an even more surprising wonder. They seemed like a sea of clouds and snowy peaks that mixed together, leaving the impression that the world had a duplicate and that there was another land above. Even in the night, the full moon lit the clouds perfectly, allowing the onlookers in the plane to gaze at the marvelous sea of silver clouds against the starry sky. The lone aircraft who flew through those clouds, an SAA A340 headed Eastwards was already filled with many interested figures taking shots of the night sky outside, even though most lay fast asleep as the cabin lights had been dimmed. Of utmost interest, however, was the fact that the entire Business cabin seemed to have been reserved by a large group of individuals. Mostly, because they all seemed to enter together and acquainted with each other, and when boarding a few hours ago in King Shaka's Terminal, even a few passengers could tell they were a tightly knit group.

Amongst the group, however, stood out a particular person. A young boy, somewhere in his mid teens, perhaps 16 years old, with long mahogany hair, tied into a thin but long ponytail low in his back, with long bangs and a pale white skin that contrasted perfectly with the color of his hair and his bright blue eyes. He sported what seemed like green cargo pants, black flat sneakers, a black undershirt with a loose red tie handing from it and a navy blue, longcoat styled, long sleeved jacket with a few pockets. However, the shocking thing were his features, which seemed to perfect to be human. Even his build, while slender, was rather shapely and muscular and he was probably somewhere around 5'11' tall. If someone could describe his appearance, the best word used to describe it would be 'fairy-like' even in spite of his gender.

He occupied the window seat and seemed to lean slightly to the seat next to him. The woman beside him seemed fairly youthful, yet one could tell by looking at her that she was much older than the young man leaning slightly on her shoulder. Just like the mahogany haired boy, the woman sported her long hair in a thin, low ponytail, with slightly more trimmed bangs. Her outfit consisted on open, high heeled shoes, low cut denim pants, a form fitting white long sleeved button up and a black top worn over it that resembled a corset. Her eyes seemed to be of a faint color, but her hair was of the same auburn brown as the young man leaning on her shoulder. She held a book in her right hand while her other one toyed with the boy's hair.

Though it seemed unlikely, they were related, and not in the way many would expect.

The young man seemed to be fairly comfortable in his place and he closed his eyes as the woman ruffled his hair, he seemed to be enjoying himself fairly nicely. He sighed deeply before he opened his mouth and whispered something lightly in a surprisingly husky voice.

'Mou… Mom, how long until we are in Japan?'

The woman smiled, turning her gaze from her book to the boy to address his inquiry 'Probably around two hours more. You should try to sleep, it didn't seem like your girlfriends let you have a nice night…' she giggled slightly, her voice, just like that of her son, seemed to be rather husky and a bit musical, carrying the same playful tone his did. She smiled slightly.

'Actually they did, but I sort of wish they hadn't…' he whined playfully, tugging on the woman's shirt slightly before rolling around, facing the next seat row 'I sleep so much better with them, but they stayed up all night, and I couldn't sleep with you or sis since you two were also awake…'

The older woman couldn't help but chuckle slightly at her son's antics. Regardless of his age or gender or even the young man's tenor voice, he definitely didn't cease to be adorable, and he was well aware of it and used it to his advantage. She doubted she was the only person, especially the only female, who thought that way.

'Well, Rachel seems to be sleeping. Do you want to go to her seat?'

The young man shook his head, a pout still on his face 'Nu-uh, I'd rather stay here… You're warmer than sis after all…'

Naturally, this made the woman smile as she patted her child on the back of his head.

'Alright, sleep well then' the woman smiled contentedly as she let her son use her lap as a pillow. However, there was something that she couldn't explain. It was just a small thing, but still, things didn't seem to fit in. As it was, however, everything could take a turn for the worse if they weren't careful. After all, how could they expect to land in Japan in their current condition without making the Japanese mages and the two resident Campione nervous? In a way, they were heading straight into the wolves den.

Then again, she could always ask _that woman_ to handle those concerns for them. Even then, though, they would have quite a few loose ends to tie, but it wasn't like they couldn't tie those once they were at their new home. Alright, it wasn't _really_ their new home, but it would be their home in the country for some time.

Mind you, her son, her daughter and her own husband liked a good fight or two, as she did herself. Apparently, it ran in the family. Or so she liked to tell herself anyways. It made sense and that alone soothed her nerves a bit…

Only a couple of minutes had transcurred since Amaranth fell asleep when he suddenly woke up, startled. They all felt it, even herself.

'We're here' Amaranth said, scurrying over to the window and looking at the sea below 'well, at least technically. We're in, well, their airspace it seems'.

'Indeed' the older woman replied 'It seems it's only an hour or so before landing'.

'Right, let's just hope your friend can fetch us a comfy enough transport'.

It was time. Soon, they would be in their destination and their new home, even if it wasn't a permanent one. Though the sensation wasn't anything new to them, they all knew they were going into the beasts' den. They had felt that when they arrived in Italy and thought far less overwhelming, when they were in the United Kingdom, and the feeling had assaulted them when they strayed into the Southern US during that cross border chase, however, this time it felt different. The country STUNK of divine power. It wasn't the fragrant scent of divinity from a god. It was the stench of stolen divinity, the divinity of those devil freaks!

Then again, that was the reason they were coming here, anyways…


	2. We Have Arrived

Disclaimer: All works of Type-Moon and Jo Taketsuki are exclusively their property. The work 'God Slaying Blade Works' and all of its characters is the exclusive property of Marcus Galen Sands, used with prior permission. This work has been made for entertainment only. If you wish to criticize, reviews are welcome, but you may do so constructively. Bathory Kardenis, Negati Winter, Arin Vesceron and other characters from the series 'Raze the Stray' and belong to TwoZeroTwo.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians, the Kane Chronicles, The Heroes of Olympus and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard are trademarks of Disney Hyperion and the sole property of Rick Riordan. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and all associated names and concepts are the property of Masaki Tsuzuki. High School DxD is the trademark of Ichiei Ishibumi. Bleach is the trademark and exclusive property of Tite Kubo and Akatsuki no Yona is again not my property (as if!) either.

Someone was having dreams... Again...

Godou Kusanagi wasn't the kind of person that had strange dreams. Even since he became a Campione, his dreams had rarely turned out to be anything more than the strange, amusing fantasies of your run-of-the-mill's 16 year old Japanese high school student. Granted, they now featured the four women that had somehow sneaked into his life as well as his heart. But even then, they had never been so strange.

His dreams certainly weren't like this one. For starters, they didn't feature him standing in the air over a huge city that looked like it came straight out of a fantasy game, with mosques, belltowers, castles and squares with fountains and thousands of people in narrow streets going about their everyday business. It was jarring, to say the least. Mostly because the place too, floated.

What was he doing here? How was this even possible in the first place? Soaring high over the skies… With a huge city below him… How-

The Seventh Campione was cut off from his confused ramblings when he heard a voice, a male one, address him.

Before Godou's senses could register anything, he saw how the city started to shrink, feeling as if something pulled him away from the floating city and into the skies above. The voice, soft and warm, soothed his confused thoughts.

'Child of Pandora, know that your power is not without limit. The threats you've faced, the Heretic Gods, are nothing but a small taste of what's coming, but I know you will become stronger and make new friends and allies. They count on you as much as you do on them, treat them kindly. My sons are known for being on the wary side. Worry not, though. If you do not act aggressively, they will aid you in your quest'.

'Who are you?' Godou asked.

'I am the one who gave voice to the disenfranchised. I gave mankind the strength to invade the heavens and hell itself. And I have seen you in action, Godou Kusanagi. King of the gods might be a pretentious way to read your name, but know that I hold no grudge against you, and neither do the people who will come to ask for your aid and to provide their own. Do keep an eye on your fellow friend though. He might be more wary of them. My children have, after all, made quite a ruckus.'

'My fellow friend?' Godou inquired 'What do you mean by that?'…

'I believe you already know' the voice said as Godou felt himself suddenly falling into an ocean. He didn't have the time to scream though, as he had fallen so rapidly that he couldn't even open his mouth to do so. However, as he sank deeper, he also realized that he did not need to breath. Though it came as a shock to him, the seventh simply kept calm, watching how the darkness of the depths suddenly gave way to light. An image formed in the darkness and he felt the water dissipate as he was swept over to a completely different place.

One that he was all too familiar with…

'Sardinia…' Godou thought to himself, looking around and realizing that he was in the harbor of the city of Cagliari. It was an unusual sight, given that he had only seen it from afar when he was on a plane. However, he was then magically flown away from the harbor, flying over the city before abruptly descending into the middle of an empty bay on the other side of the island.

It was then that he saw it…

The giant towered over the nearby hills, a colossus of stony build and a body of ashen rock. It was probably 17 meters tall. Its face, though also made of stone, was oddly human looking.

He had seen this thing once. It had saved his life. Godou knew that he had nefarious intentions, but had still lent him his power when he needed it. They had survived the onslaught of an Heretic God, he and Erica, thanks to his divine protection. His power was something that Godou did not want to face. He acknowledged that this one enemy was too strong for him to defeat easily. He would never win if he fought a being of his age, size and power…

'Melqart…' Godou whispered, dumbfounded. It had been some time since he last saw the Heretic God face to face. According to Erica, Melqart had decided to spare him and instead vanished. He would hibernate to recover the power he lost during his battle with the Persian god of war and iteration of Ares, Verethragna. In turn, it had been Verethragna who gave him his authorities and, in a way, also saved his life and that of all the people of Sicily by sapping Melqart of his strength.

But apparently, he had finally recovered. This meant that the island was now in terrible danger. Or that's what he thought until he witnessed it. Or rather, him…

Upon narrowing his eyes to get a closer look, Godou felt himself descend from the skies and his feet touched the sand. He could feel the soft, cool powder of the beach on his toes (being transported here in his pajamas did not cross his mind once, at least not until now), but it wasn't reassuring with the looming threat of a Heretic God a few steps away from him.

Suffice to say that he still felt much luckier than the auburn haired youth who was dangerously close to the god's feet.

Now closer, he could discern the features in the human much better than he could from up high. He had long auburn, layered hair with long luscious bangs that covered his forehead, tied into a low ponytail that reached all the way to his knees. His sun kissed, yet somehow ivory skin was unblemished and even looked lightly waxed, glimmering brightly against the sun. His face, with soft, very feminine facial features, was framed by locks of auburn hair and his thin, yet glistening pink lips were shut tight.

The most striking thing about him were his eyes though...

His eyes complimented his inhuman beauty which surpassed even that of the harlot that had used one of his fellow devil kings. They were of bright, arctic blue that seemed to make the heat of the sun vanish suddenly. For all he knew, they could be in the middle of Antarctica.

All in all, the man looked even more like a fairy than Liliana.

The idea, ludicrous as it might have been, hit him like a truck and brought him out of the trance he was going through. Other details of less significance were the guy's red tank top emblazoned with a Nirvana logo, a black leather, half length jacket with two front pockets and short sleeves, also with pockets themselves, and a fold to keep the sleeves short. Tight fitting, dark blue jeans with knee high, tight fitting brown boots that, for some reason, had rather high heels. He also had two belts hanging from his hip and together, they held a brown wallet sized pouch. His right leg had a girdle of brown leather wrapped around it.

He also wore a necklace with the metallic silhouette of a phoenix dangling from it. The God Slayer found that rather odd.

It wasn't his clothing, which probably cost him more than Godou's own house that impressed him though. It was the thing he held in his right hand, which, just like his left, was covered in black leather driving gloves and unlike what he'd come to expect, fully covered his fingers.

A sword. A golden sword, which shone brighter than the very sun in the blue, clear skies. It was an exquisitely beautiful blade. The kind of sword that could fascinate a collector and easily be worth millions. It was slender, sharp from both sides, with an unusual, winged guard and an ornate hilt of vermillion enamel with a ruby at its end. He couldn't help but chuckle as he thought how interested his fellow Japanese Campione and senpai would find that sword.

Still, nothing felt unusual about that sword, and the boy, who was about his age, was before a Heretic God! What was he thinking?! Why wasn't he running away? Wasn't he aware that he would die!?

Rushing to his help, the seventh Campione immediately invoked the power of his authorities, not even stopping to think on which to use as he simply reached for the first one that he could think of…

'May his spine be crushed; may his bones be broken, his tendons torn, his hair ripped from his skull; may his blood, spilled over the earth, be churned into a bloody froth. I shall become one who buries fangs into the sinner's flesh, that the will of the Lord be followed: Thou shalt be purged!'

Nothing… nothing happened.

He stumbled, his eyes widening as realization dawned on his face.

'What the?!' the Japanese god slayer thought to himself.

Before he could react, Godou's eyes widened in shock to see Melqart lift his gigantic right foot and stomp the boy to death…

As the foot descended, the boy held his sword with both hands and, in the blink of an eye, he swung, and the giant's foot and his sword connected in a flurry of sparks. Just when Godou thought the man done for, however, his blade, together with his crouching body, started pushing the giant back.

'Aaaaargh!' the youth defiantly roared as the sword not only pushed the giant's foot back, but the clash's power burst into an explosion of sorts and the monumental body of Melqart was sent flying a hundred meters into the sky. Needless to say, the seventh's eyes became the size of platters as he saw how the youth had just sent a giant Heretic God flying.

As if that hadn't been enough, the man suddenly vanished and Godou felt himself lifted high into the skies again to see how the youth jumped with a backflip and somehow landed on top of Melqart. The teen then stabbed his sword into Melqart's chest and Godou, once more, could only watch in awe what happened next.

Once the sword stabbed him, golden energy started to seep from the wound and into the sword before the blade of the sword itself was lit ablaze into blazing hot flames. Finally, the gigantic form of Melqart exploded from the inside out in a wild firestorm as his remains fell to the sea below together with the boy. As it had happened before, he was whisked away and down into the waters once more, where he witnessed how Melqart's remains dissipated into white, glowing orbs of light before vanishing. It was different from when he had slain other Heretic Gods. They had never vanished into glowing white orbs of light before. Once more, the seas darkened until he could only see himself.

'This…' the male voice that had spoken to him earlier returned 'Is what my children are capable of. This is what awaits any deity who defies his or her legacy and brings about suffering by doing so.'

'What?' Godou inquired again 'I mean, what do you mean? What awaits to Heretic Gods facing one of your 'children' in a fight?'

'It's rather easy, devil king,' the voice retorted with a proud tone 'The complete dissolution of their godhood and authorities, for good…'

As if he hadn't had enough surprises, the young Kusanagi's mind ground to a halt yet again.

The complete dissolution of a deities authorities… Permanently, with no hope of ever recovering them. The end of their lives as immortal gods… The voice hadn't been so elaborate when he first revealed this to him, but he was well aware that that was what he meant. People out there, who were still human and could fight Heretic Gods as well as any Campione… And dispel their authorities, their powers, away for good…

The idea was insane, completely insane. It could only be the delusions of a dying old man. A crazy person, a psychopath or something along those lines. Side effects of being an airhead… yet… it all seemed to fit in neatly. After all, hadn't Campione been mortals who had bested a god in a fight?

Could there really be people who did that time and time again… without authorities?

'Yes…' the mighty voice answered his thoughts, 'They have used the powers of their own will to do what you must use your authorities for…'

'Will you tell me in more detail what your "children" are?'

'Not just yet...' the voice trailed off before a loud ringing cut it off, 'You will understand once you meet them yourself. Enjoy the rest of your sleep, young Devil King…' the voice whispered off as it faded away into the distance, leaving Godou alone in the darkness.

'Wait! You have to tell me more about this… this… this threat! What am I supposed to do?'

'Find my sons and daughters…' the entity said hoarsely, his voice barely reaching Godou's ears as it echoed throughout the darkness '…If you would… learn of your future… This world's future... Mankind's future depends on it…'

Then the voice faded away completely…

Meanwhile, leaning over his sleeping form with curious glances, three girls stood by the Godou's bed. The boy appeared to be in a deep sleep of some sort, but no matter how much they shook him, he wouldn't wake up. It was as if he was in some sort of trance. The three girls, one blonde, the other a brunette and the third one with pale, bluish hair all stared at the boy's sleeping form, wondering what would happen next…

…Or more like, what to do next…

The one with bluish white hair and was the first one to break the silence.

'Do you think he…'

'Of course not, you silly woman' interrupted the blonde, turning around to give them the cold shoulder 'Even then, we would have noticed if he was under an spell.'

'Erica…' the brunette turned to face her 'We haven't been able to wake him up and it's already been 11 minutes…'

Erica turned to face her with a stern gaze.

'What do you take Godou for? This is not how Heretic Gods act. Most importantly, no human spell could affect him, so there is no conceivable way that he's under a spell of some sort. He must be tired. That's all'.

The silver haired girl, who hadn't left the sleeping form of the seventh Campione alone, finally gave him her back as well as she turned to face the other two girls 'But…' she began before being startled by the earth moving beneath her feet, prompting the group's brunette to panic.

'T-tremors!' she blurted out.

'Relax already…' Erica reassured the other two before looking back at the moving form beneath the comforter. It seemed Godou was finally up.

'Umm…' the brunette turned around to look at the boy who seemed to be slowly waking up from his slumber 'Godou? Do you feel alright?'

Erica snorted, not taking her eyes of the drowsy teen '…And he's up…'

For his part, Godou had just had the weirdest dream in a while. Granted, there was that time he became a Campione and Pandora had visited him in his sleep, but this one had been far more bizarre. As he let the details of his dream vanish, he yawned a bit, stretching his muscles and letting his eyes open slowly so the light wouldn't daze him. It had been a cold night from the look of the frost in his room's windows. It also seemed it would be a good day for outdoor activities, given the sunlight peering into his room.

Then he noticed the three girls, the blonde, the silver head and the brunette…

Godou grumbled, soothing his head with one of his hands 'Hmm, Erica, Liliana, Yuri… What are you doing here this early?'

It was Erica who answered the question, sitting on the bed 'Oh, am I not allowed to visit the man I swore myself to?'

'Would you stop saying things like that?!' Godou exclaimed, hopping off his bed and looking outside. 'At any rate, why are you three in my room? Is there something going on, I don't sense any-' the youth said before he felt an unknown sensation wash over him. It was definitely not divine in origin. He could tell that much, but there was something in the air outside today. He hadn't even opened the window yet, but just from looking at the outside as the sun rose over Tokyo, tinting the skyline a deep gold, he felt something out there, and it wasn't a Heretic God, or a Divine Beast… No, this was…

"Human… as in, a normal mage, but way, way stronger" Godou thought, his gaze lingering on the skies. The power was unusual… It matched a Heretic God's… but the essence, that trace of lingering divinity that Heretic Gods and Divine Beasts gave out, was nowhere to be found.

No, that wasn't right. There was something in there… instead, it would be better to say it felt like something natural… perhaps, 'fairy dust' smell would've been more like it. It permeated the air even within his room and while easy to ignore, he found that after inhaling deeply, his nostrils burned a bit.

'Can you smell that?' he asked, though to his surprise, two out of the three girls just stared at him jaw slacked 'Well, it's not… smell, but it's… akin to it…'

The blonde of the group sighed, looking sternly at the boy 'What are you talking about, Godou?'

Liliana closed her eyes, inhaling deeply before stepping closer to Godou 'I… I think I can, but barely.'

'I… I feel, nor smell… no… nothing at all…' Yuri voiced, turning around to take a look at the entire room and then gave the air a good sniff 'No, nothing at all…'

It seemed her response did not fit in with the blonde woman in red, who was looking either annoyed or desperate to be able to smell whatever this 'essence' or whatever was… 'I don't get it!' she exclaimed, pointing a finger at Liliana 'How can you and Godou perceive this essence and I cannot?!'

'Umm…' the Hime Miko interrupted, lifting her finger 'I cannot perceive it either'.

Well, this day was looking weirder and weirder the more Godou thought about it. First the dream, then this essence… or scent… and now, only he and Liliana seemed to be able to perceive it. But one point remained, what were the three girls doing in his room this early?

Suffice to say that Godou's answer came as soon as there was a knock in the door and a voice that made his blood freeze rang through.

'Onii-chan! Why aren't you awake yet?' Shizuka Kusanagi's voice berated through the door 'Do you know mother's waiting for you to help her with something?'

Damn Shizu- Wait, mom?

'Shizuka!' Godou immediately spat out, the sudden news getting him out of his stupor 'What did you say about our mother?'

'She's here!' she yelled 'She told me she wants you to help her with something. I don't know what? Go down, she's in the kitchen, ask her yourself…'

'Damn it!' Godou hissed before running downstairs, still in his pajamas, out of the room and almost tripping down the flight of stairs before arriving at the small living room in his house and seeing the woman that would rarely, if ever be around, sipping on a mug of coffee and reading a fashion magazine.

'Oh, is that you Godou?' the voice of the woman… His mother, said nonchalantly 'I see you just woke up…'

The boy scratched the back of his head, not knowing exactly what to tell her. After all, she was rarely around them, often being "busy" at work. 'Umm, what do you need me for?'

She simply smirked and Godou thought about looking for any possible excuses to get out of whatever mess he might have involved himself into by coming down. It wasn't that he disliked his mother. Well his opinion of her as a woman was pretty high, but her opinion of her as a mother was not much higher than that of his father, which he was pretty sure was nice as a man and trash when it came to parenthood, but he still preferred to be cautious dealing with the woman before him. After all, his sister's scary personality did not come from nowhere.

He heard the sound of a door closing behind him and knew that the three girls he had just left were up to something. Naturally, that couldn't possibly be good for him.

'Well...' she began, standing up before walking towards the door 'I was hoping you'd help me with a small errand my boss asked me to do…'

He raised an eyebrow at this, crossing his arms and thinking she might not be pulling his leg after all. 'Errand? Of what sort?' Godou inquired, occasionally peeking behind him to make sure nothing was happening behind his back while he was distracted dealing with a completely different sort of problem 'As far as I am aware, you're an office woman. Why would they have you run errands?'

She shrugged as Godou wondered if running away now was an option. Though perhaps he could count on someone to do something that normally he wouldn't want them to do to bail him out of the possible tragedy that was about to happen.

'Got me' his mother then walked over to the exit, grabbing a light coat before turning around to see him 'I was actually going to ask if you'd come with me to pick a friend up at the airport. Her children and a few friends will be going to your school and she asked me if I wouldn't mind bringing you along to meet them.'

That was all? Well… Perhaps he had gotten not so unlucky, after all…

It seemed alright, at least for now. After all, it wasn't every day that his mother came home. Well, she did come home every day, but if it was for anything other than sleeping it meant he had gotten lucky…

'Alright. I will get ready' Godou ran towards the stairs before turning back to address his mother again 'By the way, why do you want ME to go with you? Did you ask Shizuka?'

'I did. She told me you were better at dealing with foreigners than she was…' his devilish mother answered with a fake pout on her face.

You have no idea mom, you have no idea.

On the other side of the city, a South African Airways A340 was unloading its cargo and the people stretching their legs as they made their way to customs. So far, however, what stood out in particular were the First Class passengers. Different as they may have been, they all stood out like a sore thumb. Save for the lone Japanese girl that was with them, they were all Westerners as diverse as the countries of the European Union. Even then, they all had an unusual, almost magical, grace and poise that made everyone look at them and marvel at how they could make strolling through the airport while pulling wheeled bags behind them look glamorous. However, even more unusual was the language they were all using. To anyone's ears, it sounded ancient and very mysterious, and complimented their exotic, mysterious appearance. They were all led by a woman with a long, low hanging ponytail and auburn hair. Her jeans hugged themselves to her hips, and her long sleeved, white blouse also hugged her voluptuous figure tightly, except for the forearms, were the blouse widened and became slightly loose. She also used some sort of black, tight fitting bodice over it, with an ample cleavage. The blouse itself was unbuttoned to reveal some of her chest, albeit not too much. Her shoes were black and closed, with high golden heels. The outer sides of her jeans also had slits held together by denim threads, exposing the skin of her legs all the way to her upper thighs. Her blouse also left a small patch of the undersides of her arms exposed. It was a very odd outfit, even for the Japanese.

The man behind her, just as tall and younger looking didn't looked that much different. He had auburn hair styled like that of the woman, a black, half length leather jacket, a red v backed tanktop with ample openings that also left the underside of his arms exposed, revealing skin as smooth as the one of the woman leading the group on. The tank top was also tight fitting and outlined a lean, powerful build. His jeans were like those of the woman, tight fitting and with side slits. His boots, however, were worn over the pants, rather than under, and they fit tightly as well, reaching his knees and being of light brown suede. However, they also featured the same golden high heels as the woman's shoes. The girls at the airport who looked at him watched intently as he walked by.

No need to mention their fairy like features. It was obvious those two were mother and son.

As they led their entourage, the people began to notice the rest of the foreigners… A redhead with a braided ponytail and alluring amber eyes; a knightly looking young girl with brown, mid length hair dressed in a school uniform with a white blazer; a nymph-like white haired boy with long hair that reached his knees and emerald eyes; another white haired man, this one with hardened stormy blue eyes and dressed in a smart casual blazer with a black undershirt and ripped jeans; an statuesque, athletic blonde with long blonde hair that reached the end of her back dressed in a white, form fitting wool sweater and a rather short denim miniskirt; a white haired, tall female with emerald eyes and a commanding bust dressed in a blue coat and black leggings; a blonde with short, heavily layered blonde hair with many bangs and bright green eyes; a brunette man in a white army jacket with a confident, boisterous smile and finally, an Asian, most likely Japanese girl with a calm expression and hair and eyes the color of the sea, wearing golden earrings.

Needless to say, the immigration officers, a man in his mid thirties and a woman in her mid twenties all seemed flabbergasted when both appeared and they asked, in perfect Japanese to let them pass. The boys of the group behind the auburn haired boy and the females behind the woman.

Needless to say, the most unusual thing was however, their passports. Every single one of them used a UN Laissez Passer. Many of them were underage and even then, the Laissez Passer wasn't even the usual one. It was the red biometric UNLP that was used by the likes of the UN General Secretary and from how the machine seemed to be reading them, they were all valid and official. Not to mention that each one had a Japanese permanent resident card.

Other than the sheer rarity of possessing travel documents usually reserved for the top brass of the UN, however, there was nothing wrong with them. The passports and residence permits were all genuine. Perhaps they might have just been the children of diplomats and the woman was probably one herself.

Without looking up, both customs officers stamped the passports as fast as they could and then stacked them back before handing the travel documents to the woman and her son. Everyone then simply walked past the customs and left towards the arrivals area without saying further words. It seemed their transport had not arrived yet, as they didn't seem to be moving that fast. The group vanished from the officer's sight shortly afterwards. Much to their surprise, their stupefaction vanished as soon as they were out of sight.

"What the hell just happened?" Thought the female officer as soon as she regained her wits.

Godou wouldn't have thought much of what was going on in the airport. At least normally. People coming back and forth was a pretty normal occurrence. However, what he saw coming from the customs area wasn't the sort of thing you'd see nowadays. A tightly knit group of mostly handsome teenagers, boys and girls alike, walked together towards them, led by a woman with long brown hair in an even longer ponytail that reached her knees. One of the boys, who was around his age, also had his auburn hair in a long ponytail that reached the same place. Given that and their similar visages, it was very likely that he was the woman's son.

Then there was the very obvious elephant in the room. The guy was the same one he had seen in his dream!

Deciding it was best not to do anything reckless when his mother was close by, he decided to play it cool (and hope that if something happened no one was hurt). Instead, he tried to veer his attention towards the mismatched group of teens. The colors and heights were all over the place. He also noticed something unusual. Despite most of them being around his age, there were some quirks that stood out. Some of them were taller. Others were paler. Others had longer hair than the rest. Some even had dyed hair and highlights (or they were dye and highlights, Godou presumed). It seemed sort of strange though, and not because of their strange hair colors. There was a clear, lingering scent of power among them, and it didn't feel strictly human. He couldn't help but find himself comparing most of them to Liliana. There was something "fairy like" about them. He couldn't help but think that upon listening to them speaking, he would find himself unable to understand anything. Well, his Campione powers could make him understand the language after listening to it for a while. Still, he wasn't expecting them to speak Japanese.

And since he was Godou Kusanagi, unlucky freak of nature extraordinaire, he had to be wrong.

The woman who led the group met with her mother with a brief hug and both started chatting away about how long it had been since they last met and whatnot. The woman, which he had learned was named Gracie, was talking about accommodations arrangements, car rentals and driving in the country. While the two women caught up with each other, the seventh Campione couldn't help but take a closer look at the entourage that had set camp near a small resting area close to the arrivals hall nearby.

The auburn haired guy seemed to be browsing music in a Lumia phone. However, what stood out was a pendant of what looked like a phoenix that hung from his neck. All the others, and even the older woman, all seemed to wear similar necklaces. Some were golden, others copper colored, and others of a translucent bluish color. They seemed to glitter in the light in a way unlike anything Godou had ever seen before.

Next to him, was a slightly shorter girl with shoulder length, layered blonde hair using a white, short sleeved, casual top with a black miniskirt and short black suede shoes with no heel, meaning that she was probably as tall as the boy, whose boots had heels to boot (pun intended). Just like the boy, she was sitting, albeit on the floor, resting her back against the seat in which he sat. He noticed her wearing a small purple ribbon and silver button in her hair. She also had bright green eyes that were framed by her golden bangs and wore black leather driving gloves, complimenting his own. From what he could infer, her pendant had the design of a wolf. Both she and the boy were looking at their cellphones opposite each other but, in spite of that, both seemed to hold their free hands together and one could notice a faint smile in the two's lips. A couple, perhaps?

His question was answered when he saw they trembled slightly and it became easier to see their smile, now widened. They made, in Godou's opinion, a cute couple.

He also looked at the other teens around the place. One was a white haired male with back length hair that was probably a couple years older than him. He had long hair and wore an open navy blue blazer and ripped jeans with black sneakers. He sported a dark green polo with the words "God killed the queen, so I killed him too!" and Godou couldn't help but flinch at this. He was lean and slender, but muscular and despite that, his face was just like that of his friends, fairylike and somewhat feminine with snowy bangs framing dark green eyes. He laid sprawled on a sofa, tinkering with a tablet, even through the black gloves he wore (he started to notice that everyone save for a white haired girl wore them). How he scrolled down with those gloves was a question best left for later. From his appearance alone, Godou could tell the guy was either very rich and powerful, or a classy thug, if such a thing existed. He also noticed a redheaded female with a long ponytail that fell to her lower back, to the point that she was sitting on it. She wore a white sundress underneath a white parka she left open. It was also large enough to reach her upper thighs. She seemed to be wearing open, black high heeled sandals and was reading a travel magazine. In a way, he couldn't help but be briefly reminded of his fellow Japanese king. The girl's eyes, which had an amber glow to them, seemed to be made of the same molten steel in Shirou's own eyes. The strangest thing about her, however, was how she was sitting in the same sofa as the white haired guy and he was resting his feet on her lap. She didn't seem to mind at all, and would occasionally toy with the guy's leg by scratching it with her free hand.

There was also a younger boy with white hair, but his was much longer. His hair was silky and soft, whereas the older guy's had been straight, but rather spiky. Of all the teenagers, he had the frailest appearance and the one resembling a fairy most. He wore a sleeveless tank top with a white vest that seemed to glitter with the whiteness of his hair, which was loose and so long it sprawled over the floor even though he was sitting in one of the free couches. He seemed to be wearing black leggings, as they hugged his legs, which were pretty shapely for a guy... And also wore knee length, milky white boots. Both of his hands and arms were covered by white bridal gauntlets. The skin on his naked shoulders, fingers and face was the palest of all of them. As with the rest, his feminine face was framed by very long white bangs that made his bright green eyes far more striking. Godou had no doubt that anyone who didn't know better would've mistaken him for a girl. He seemed to be around his sister's (or he thought she was his sister) age and his pendant, silver, just like the rest of his outfit, had a design resembling that of an owl. He also couldn't help but notice that even though he looked fairly apprehensive, he seemed very smart. Smart… white haired, owls… He couldn't help but shiver. He didn't want to associate the frail looking boy with the likes of Athena. But even before he looked at the pendant, he couldn't help but feel a cool wind coming from the boy who seemed to be looking at a white laptop with a triangle emblem of sorts emblazoned on its back. As with the rest of his things, it was a silver laptop with a white keyboard.

Behind his back, peering from behind the back rest of the couch was someone which he believed could easily be his big sister, who was also probably a year or so older than Godou. She had very long and silky white hair just like her brother's, but it seemed to reach only to her lower back. She had deep blue eyes which reminded him of the depths of the ocean and was dressed in a white sundress that was so small it was a shirt instead. It was now that he noticed that the redhead girl and the blonde both had enviable busts, but the snow haired beauty had by far the largest, and her cleavage made it all the more obvious, even though it wasn't big. Over it, she wore a blue snow coat… or at least it seemed that way. It was long sleeved and had white mink ends on the sleeves, but the fabric seemed way too light to be that of a snow coat. She also wore leggings, but these were navy blue and her white boots seemed somewhat looser. She seemed to be staring intently at something the boy was looking at in his screen. Occasionally, he'd type some things, stop and then the girl would tilt her head and narrow her eyes a bit, seemingly attempting to understand what he'd typed.

He also noticed a younger looking girl with shoulder length brown hair tied into a short, high ponytail who had started a game of chess with a man who also had brown hair while another, older girl looked. The three of them sat on couches surrounding a black glass table and had, in a couple of minutes, taken three pieces from each. The younger girl had her light brown hair done up in a short, high ponytail. She stared intently at the man's black knight with her bright blue eyes. Her white blazer was emblazoned with a strange emblem on its left side. She also wore a tartan red miniskirt and black short boots. It almost resembled a fancy school uniform in a way.

The man, on the other side, was the only male with average length hair and rather normal looking blue eyes and had no pendant to speak of. Instead, he had a white wristwatch. His white air force jacket, black undershirt, navy jeans and worn out converse sneakers gave him a rather normal appearance which made him stick out like a sore thumb among the elegant, sharply dressed teens. He picked up one of his pieces, a pawn and closed the eyes on his face briefly, breathed deeply and then let go off the piece. The other, older girl had short, cropped auburn hair with two small tufts of hair tied to her back. She was dressed in a white, short sleeved shirt with a logo that read "Swords of Sanghelios" and blue denim short shorts with white combat boots. Her amber eyes darted back and forth between both sides of the chessboard before she sighed and lowered her head, closing her eyes and apparently dozing off. Her pendant was a silver one and featured a mustang. However, she also had another necklace, one with a purple gem dangling from it. When he looked more carefully, Godou also realized that she wore a strange looking white fingerless glove in her left hand.

Now close, Godou was pretty sure they weren't human... Or at least fully human.

There was something that felt magical around them, like with Liliana, but their power was much vaster. Their power seemed to fluctuate between being slightly lower than that of his own fairy knight to vaster than his own, which made his head spin.

It annoyed Godou to no end. It made no sense whatsoever. He could tell very clearly that these guys and girls weren't Campione, but the power they had did not match that of any mage he knew. The strongest combatant he knew that wasn't a Campione was Ena, and even her power was nothing compared to the power of the ones before him. However, something also told him the group wasn't a threat, at least not one like the other foes he had faced before. They felt like a group of normal teenagers around his age, some a bit younger, others a bit older, but they all felt relatively… normal.

This meant he didn't do much besides sighing and trying to forget about the thing that was now a part time job of sorts to him. There was no point in believing these guys were a threat when they clearly weren't one. If they wanted to do something, they'd have done it already. Their power allowed them that much, even with him around.

He had been peering in their direction and thinking so much, that he almost missed his mother and her friend coming towards them. He thought that he should introduce himself to the woman, but would wait until his mother told him to do so. As simple as it sounded, introducing himself to foreigners might have problems in and on itself, even if there was no language barrier between the groups.

Surprisingly enough, it was rather easy. His mother had introduced him to her friend. Then he simply told everyone his name and what he was: a normal high school student, no need to bring the whole "God slayer" thing up even though something within him wanted to say it. It turned out that most of the group was around his age. There were three members that were around his sister's age and four that were two to three years his seniors. He couldn't help but wonder how she could know the age of every single one of them even though she wasn't a part of the group in the same way the younger ones were. Of course, she was their guardian, from the looks of it, so she may have been able to get her hands on that sort of information. What surprised Godou most was how she somehow fitted in perfectly herself. Suffice to say, things had just started getting interesting to him.

The group, however, opted not to introduce themselves, at least not until they arrived at their destination. He didn't have any problems with that. With them aboard two vans in two separate groups, they headed for one of the less populated residential areas of the city. Godou and his mother in one of the cars together with her mother's friend and the other group being driven around by the brown haired man and trailing behind their own car. Godou couldn't help but notice that while they were driving into one of the more affluent residential areas of the city, this one was opposite the second largest and best known of them.

It was opposite Emiya Shirou's own residential area.

Now, that might just have been a coincidence, but Godou noticed that their mood, which had been mostly unpreoccupied but rather tightly wounded nonetheless, started to loosen up. It certainly seemed as if they were trying to get away from the area where his fellow Campione lived.

Stop! You're reading too much into this!

True indeed. He hadn't even noticed that they had arrived. Not that it helped set him at ease though…

If he ever thought Shirou's house was large, then he took that back…

This… This… This FORTRESS, for lack of a better word, wasn't huge… It was gargantuan!

The property had a very lush front garden with an small access road that, from the looks of it, was made from marble and was easily four lanes wide. A large forest surrounded the property, and Godou thought he could see a lake behind the mammoth sized building. As for the building itself…

It had a large entrance similar to that of hotels, with a roof over the road and a wall to the roof's left, opposite the entrance. The building itself was mostly glass, with huge windows that went from the roof to the ground and could easily be 6 stories high, perhaps even more. It looked like some gigantic conference hall. If he had to guess, he'd say it would be at least 8 stories high and probably as large as the Roman Colosseum at least.

By the time he gathered what was left of his brain and found the strength to leave the car, he looked around a bit more. There was a fountain with many water jets protruding from it besides one of the walls. It also seemed as if someone had recently landscaped the place, as there were flower arrangements throughout the gardens. All in all, it looked like a huge conference center designed by a famous architect or something. He didn't even want to think how expensive the thing must've been.

When he turned his attention back to the crowd which had gathered before the huge glass doors, he found that their numbers seemed to have hiked quite a bit. There were now at least twenty teens around his age. The auburn haired boy stood in the center and before all of them tinkering with a camera before he grinned and looked up running towards him.

'Hey' he shouted as he approached. His voice was oddly baritone and youthful still, and seemed to convey feelings like those he had felt when he had heard John Pluto Smith for the first time. An odd mixture of admiration and power, but more laid back 'You mind helping us?' the guy said as he handed a Polaroid Z2300 camera to him and then ran back towards the group as they suddenly lifted him in the air.

'Alright' Godou focused the camera, taking care not to cover the side 'say 'cheese'!'

'CHEESE!' they all said loudly as Godou pulled the trigger and then a printed version of the photo came out of one of its sides. The group divided shortly afterwards and the boy came back to take his camera. The young Japanese man then noticed that he didn't seem to leave like the others did.

He scratched his head 'umm, well…' he began, but he was promptly cut off as one of the girls, the blonde one that had been discreetly holding hands with the camera's owner put a finger to his lips as she took the camera from him before her partner smirked.

'I think we haven't introduced…' the guy stepped back, putting both of his arms behind his head 'I'm Amaranth… Amaranth Graves, but I don't think you'll be using the last name often' He then snuck behind the blonde, who held one of her gloved hands as she beamed a grin at him before continuing with the introductions 'I am Sol, nice to meet you!'

"Godou. Kusanagi Godou… or Godou Kusanagi if you prefer…" he said before he felt himself stumble. It was as if someone had hit him squarely in his chest. It hurt like hell.

What the hell was going on?

He then felt himself wobble on his feet. The two teens that had introduced themselves to him looked at him before glancing conspirationally at each other, muttering something, possibly to each other, in a language Godou couldn't understand.

'Ugh, I am not feeling well...' Godou started before he felt someone hold him by his arms.

It was Amaranth, who had decided to chime in on the issue 'You certainly don't look well...' he interjected 'do you want to come inside? Perhaps something to drink might help'.

The Japanese teen shook his head… Something was wrong… Very wrong. The entire place suddenly felt like a mine field. There was something out there in the air that, for some reason, wanted to off him and he couldn't put a finger on it, but knew for certain the best idea was running back home right now.

Never mind that his legs were on the verge of failing him.

'Actually, I think I will be leaving now…' he answered, suddenly feeling as if a chain was being squeezed around his neck. 'If you see my mother, just tell her I was feeling sleepy and am heading back home'.

Amaranth nodded, though he seemed a bit reluctant to let go off the issue. The girl, Sol, studied him before putting a hand to Godou's forehead and pulling it away 'Hmm, no fever whatsoever… But at least allow us to help you get back home.' The foreigner then took her phone out and tinkered with the screen before looking back at the house, where everyone was gathering up and, much to Godou's surprise and secretly, abject horror, more cars were arriving with even more people 'There!' Sol triumphantly exclaimed as she put her phone back into her pocket and turned to walk towards the house, snaking an arm around Amaranth's hip shortly after he let Godou off to stand on his own. Sol then turned around and looked back from the gathering crowd to address the Japanese boy. 'I just asked for a Uber cab, it will be here in 5 minutes and you can leave. It will take you home for free, so no worries about anything' she told Godou, her voice rising as she and her boyfriend walked away before disappearing into the colossal mansion.

'Thanks for coming!' She finally beamed before Godou lost the couple from sight, though at that point all he could do was wave and smile.

* * *

By the time he reached home, Godou was practically dead…

He had arrived at the doorstep dragging his feet, feeling drained by the whole experience. It wasn't that he had been poisoned, or cursed, or had his life devoured… No. He simply had been using up all his adrenaline to endure through that visit. It was as if something in the air had suddenly replaced the oxygen. Something toxic that was poisoning him with each passing minute. He thought back to the first thing he had noticed that morning in the air, how it seemed to shimmer if he focused his eyes. The worst thing is that whatever was making him feel as if he was breathing toxic fumes didn't seem to affect everyone else. The feeling died the moment he stepped into the cab (where the chaffeur had been so helpful so as to help him inside) and then weakened until it vanished altogether by the time he arrived. Even then, the whole ordeal left him feeling drained, and he technically hadn't had enough sleep and it was still Saturday morning. He decided that some sleep might help him recover from this completely. It was just 8:49 AM and he could still have a few hours of soothing napping all to himself.

Before he could stop thinking on this, however, he passed through the living room and heard the TV on with the news broadcast. His sister, alongside Erica, Liliana, Ena and Yuri were all watching it intently and he couldn't help but let his curiosity get the best of him and stop to watch what they were as well…

'According to the latest reports, the death toll is nearing the 97,000. No city seems to have been spared the complete destruction that happened in this place.' The reporter narrated, 'According to the US Forces in South Korea, the government has collapsed completely and the forces have been ordered to withdraw as North Korean forces have moved in to completely capture what's left of the peninsula after the devastating Earthquake and tsunami, coupled with the unfortunate nuclear explosion, have left the formerly prosperous and fledging nation in ruin. According to experts, the possibility of South Korea making it out of this alive near 0 percent. It is more likely that most survivors flee to China or the North. As it stands, the Japan Self Defense Forces and the Russian Federation's Navy all seem to have blockaded themselves against a mass exodus from the disaster stricken country that seems to be in life support up to this point'.

While the news seemed serious, Godou didn't care. He was feeling worse now. As odd as it sounded, it felt as if he was melting. Perhaps that mansion had some sort of curse that weakened him. After all, he knew he wasn't the only one with secrets to hide and it was obvious they had their own to care for, so it made sense they'd cloak the house or put some traps with the obvious intention of keeping intruders out.

Turning around he prepared to leave, silently and not bothering to even tell anyone, all of whom seemed glued to the TV screen, about what he had been through just a few minutes ago, but he was cut off right before he opened the door to his room. Then again, he was expecting her to go after him and say something, more so after the discreet exchange they had…

'Godou…' Erica began 'We need to talk.'

He simply closed his eyes in acknowledgement, not even bothering to turn around.

'I know'

With those last words, he opened his door and closed it behind him, ditching his pants and dropping into his bed and under the cool bedsheets. He was too tired now. He'd deal with all this later…

 _Naturally, the point, which was that the boy he had just met, Amaranth, if he recalled correctly, was the same one from his dream…_

And that was how the Seventh Campione and one of the Devil Kings of Japan almost breaks all the glasses in his house by using nothing but his voice… And freaking out… A little bit.


	3. Stalked by a Thundercat

**Alright, so to those wondering why this came in so late, well, I've been very busy preparing for a huge trip I will be going together with my friends around November and preparing for NaNoWriMo. That and I have been polishing the main work from which this fanfic is drawing from. Not to mention I also wanted to convince a couple people to let me give their characters, which I feel were shafted, a happy ending. Also, the premise is going to be expanded exponentially to commemorate the release of Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series and will lead up to it.**

 **Disclaimer: All works of Type-Moon and Jo Taketsuki are exclusively their property. The work 'God Slaying Blade Works' and all of its characters is the exclusive property of Marcus Galen Sands, used with prior permission. This work has been made for entertainment only. If you wish to criticize, reviews are welcome, but you may do so constructively. Bathory Kardenis, Negati Winter, Arin Vesceron and other characters from the series 'Raze the Stray' and belong to TwoZeroTwo.**

 **Percy Jackson & The Olympians, the Kane Chronicles, The Heroes of Olympus and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard are trademarks of Disney Hyperion and the sole property of Rick Riordan. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and all associated names and concepts are the property of Masaki Tsuzuki. High School DxD is the trademark of Ichiei Ishibumi. Bleach is the trademark and exclusive property of Tite Kubo.**

 **Cruciator: The Celestial War, Unyielding Knights and Prelude: New World Century and all its characters concepts and others are, however, still my property.**

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Baptised with a Perfect Name_**

 ** _The doubting one by heart_**

 ** _Alone without himself_**

 ** _War between him and the day_**

 ** _Need someone to blame_**

 ** _In the end, little he can do alone_**

 ** _You believe but what you see_**

 ** _You receive but what you give_**

 ** _Caress the one, the Never-Fading_**

 ** _Rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow_**

 ** _Caress the one, the hiding amaranth_**

 ** _In a land of the daybreak"_**

 **Nightwish – Amaranth.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Stalked by a Thundercat…**

The sun was rising over Tokyo. The day seemed to be starting pretty normally and people were preparing for the day ahead. In particular, a young redheaded boy and his white haired little sister.

Well, not so little…

As Shirou Emiya and Ilyasviel von Einzbern prepared to leave for school, someone observed them from the shadows.

The figure was perched up in one of the trees that led straight into one of the windows of the mansion. This one allowed her to take a good look at the kitchen and the table where the eight Campione and his little sister were taking breakfast. She had been asked to keep an eye on those two by her mistress and she would not falter on her duty, even if she was still pretty confused about what this was all about.

 _Oh, they're leaving…_

As the siblings boarded the black limousine that would take them to school, the figure jumped off from its tree, her short hair flowing under a silver circlet. The girl's black hair, silver long coat and black camo pants made for a rather interesting picture, wild yet attractive.

As she proceeded to jump from tree to tree, following the limo on its way to Jounan Academy, the young huntress couldn't help but think she had gotten in a huge mess.

The huntress, Thalia Grace, hoped she would be able to meet with her friend once more in the near future...

* * *

As for Shirou, the drive to school was pretty uneventful. He had refused to talk to his little big sister when the time came. No wonder why he would often wind up getting on her bad side. But then again, telling her might not have been a brilliant idea. All Shirou knew was that he was getting tired of having to deal with this stuff. He wished that, for once, things were much easier and normal, which made him shiver a bit. He understood his fellow Seventh Campione well, but he wouldn't surrender all his power for the sake of normalcy. He had many enemies that would love to off him and his sister and he wouldn't give up his power when they could easily be waiting for his guard to go down.

Looking out of the window at the moving tree branches (which for some reason were moving rather wildly even though the grass only swayed gently in the breeze), his mind drifted back to the dream he had last night…

The first night after he had broken free of Venus' control, he had dreamt with the landscape of his reality marble. He had been able to rummage through his sword collection and noticed the blades the marble had. It seemed that he had already seen quite a lot of swords… or he just stole them from his other selves' reality marbles. However, the dream that followed, the one that he had after the visit from that strange man, had been completely different.

* * *

 _He didn't know where he was, but it looked like a summer camp to him._

 _Shirou stood in the middle of a huge central area, surrounded by cabins that seemingly took on an omega formation around him. Before him, were some play grounds for things like basketball and even tennis. Further ahead was a clear lake and beyond, a huge pavilion with a hearth burning in the very center. It seemed to be night, and there was no one around. He didn't take note of most of the cabins surrounding him, but he could see one that, for some reason, glowed under the moonlight, as if made of silver or a similar material._

 _The eeriest thing was, however, the figure that stood before the door._

 _The figure was hard to describe. His face was covered by a haze of sorts. However, he could make out the red tanktop, black half length jacket with short sleeves, brown boots as well as a long ponytail of copper colored hair that almost reached the figure's knees. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought the figure was a girl, but the lack of any protrusions on its chest and its imposing height, probably two or three inches taller than him made him think otherwise._

 _His suspicions were confirmed when the figure finally spoke in a light and rather high pitched, but unmistakably male voice._

 _'_ _Hmph. So you are the one who dispatched Mordred?' he wondered, matter-of-factly. 'It would seem you're naturally a dual wielder' he observed, as he strode towards him before stopping a meter or so before him. While Shirou could not see his eyes, he had the distinct impression that he was being analyzed by the young man before him. Given his voice and height, he was probably around Shirou's age…_

 _…_ _probably…_

 _This didn't bode well for Shirou. Especially because the youth's black gloved hands were holding what looked like a silver bastard sword. It had a strange design. While the length and hilt were unmistakably those of a bastard sword, the width of the blade was hardly wider than that of a katana, but with edges on both sides. It wasn't a simple tsurugi either. The elaborate guard and silver hilt, which was apparently a part of the blade rather than something that could be replaced, seemed too western for the weapon to be Japanese. The guard was perhaps the most alien thing of the entire weapon. Rather than a normal guard, two wings of the same material curled around the blade, leaving an open inner pocket were enemy swords would be stuck if they struck it. It was, despite its ornate design, rather functional._

 _His analysis of the enemy was however, interrupted when he simply lunged in and attacked._

 _Shirou did not waste any time of his own either, tracing Kansho & Bakuya on instinct like he had always done. However, the swords, which usually would absorb most of the shock, almost broke from the strength of his opponents swing._

 _From the looks of it, he also choose this moment to start a monologue with the eight Campione. Great._

 _'_ _You really seem fond of those swords. However…' he swung again, and Shirou moved in to block, but once more, his blades vibrated from the impact and he was pushed back 'You should know that weapons of that kind will not serve you well anymore!' the figure concluded with a dry kick that sent Shirou sprawling on his back before he stood up._

 _'_ _You do not seem to grasp the trouble the world is going through. All you care is going to a home that is doomed. You cannot save that place. Your best bet is to find a new home for them. Mind you…' at this, the figure charged forward again, prompting the defenseless Shirou to backflip away from a downward strike that would've bisected him and put up a guard stance '…If you cannot help us find a way to save this world, then yours is as good as gone!_

 _Rather than simply taking the blow again, the young Emiya feinted and sidestepped, managing to zero in on his adversary's back. He did not seem to even notice though, which meant all Shirou needed was one strike in and he would be down._

 _But Shirou wasn't expect his blades to break when they made contact with the youth's body._

 _Even though he couldn't see it, the eight Campione could feel that the other teen was smiling before he punched him under his chin and he was sent flying and crashed straight into one of the cabins._

 _Now he could notice the details of all of them some more. There was a humongous one at the center, the silver one was flanked by a golden one and the one he was in and…_

 _He was in the one next to it. The ninth cabin if he was right…_

 _For some reason, he felt the strength that had been sapped from him during the short skirmish return to himupon looking at it. It resembled a miniature factory, with chimneys on the roof and lots of gears all around. A flaming hammer emblem was emblazoned above the door, and then the way to defeat his opponent came to his mind._

 _'_ _Arondight' the redhead muttered to himself._

 _As he called for the sword, he could feel all his strength returning. He went charging straight into the figure and aimed right for an opening near his shoulder. However, the figure twisted around and stabbed his sword into the shaft. It was Shirou's turn to tremble as he felt the swords clash. As he stumbled back, he watched in awe how an strange, glowing aura bathed the figure in a pale light, not unlike that of the moon itself._

 _Before his eyes could register it, the figure charged in again, but this time, it delivered a series of lightning fast strikes as he struck from the right, vanished and then, coming from the opposite direction, struck again… and again, and again. Shirou's mind wasn't fast enough to keep count of the strikes, so he did not know how many times he was struck, but he knew that each of the strikes had enough power to kill him, yet they had only grazed him. Even his body registered the pain only a few seconds after the strikes, causing him to convulse._

 _For a second, the man stopped before charging in again, his sword ready to deliver the finishing strike as he addressed him one last time 'Can you do it? Can you save more than just a few, can you be more than a hero? Answer me! Emiya Shirou!'_

 _The sword finally made contact with his body, and his torso was no longer attached to his head._

* * *

Shirou had awakened with a start, only to realize that he was running late. Some hurdles afterwards, he had dressed up and gone downstairs to meet with Ilya. As he had saved up some time in the shower, he arrived just in time, warding off any potential questions that his little big sister might've thrown at him.

However, the nagging sensation he had since the dream had clung to him. Most importantly was the feeling of being stared at by someone, but when he looked out of the window, all he could see was a tree with a calico cat that was attempting to catch an squirrel. Even then, something about the cat's eyes disquieted him. Those eyes, electric blue in color, seemed oddly intelligent and out of place in a simple animal. They were the eyes of a person, a person that was smarter than average and had held a staring contest with him for a few seconds before she pounced on the squirrel.

Wait… she?

When did the stray cat tell him her gender?

Shaking his head and blinking repeatedly, the young god slayer brought himself back to the present just as the car pulled over the entrance to the school grounds. Hastily leaving as Ilya almost pushed him out of the car, Shirou took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and calmed down. Ilya had already gone ahead and from the looks of it, met up with Shizuka. Hopefully, if something odd happened, she'd contact him right away.

He waved at his undead assistant as he turned around and left in the sports car, waving back at him before leaving. Turning around to head towards the school, Shirou suddenly came to a screeching halt on his tracks.

 _The cat was there… again…_

It was the same cat, he was sure of it! It had the same electric blue eyes as the one he had seen during breakfast. It was now casting a glare down at him from a vantage point in the school roof, once more staring at him like an eagle, as if she could strike his heart with a bow from that distance…

It was when he thought that that he saw it. It was a momentary thing, but he knew what he had seen wasn't an illusion.

For an instant, the image of the cat had blurred, and he could see a young woman, a girl probably no older than 17, glaring down at him.

The girl had cropped black hair restrained by a silver circlet and was dressed in a white coat. Her legs were covered by durable looking black camo pants and she wore combat books that made her look oddly more imposing. Her eyes, just like those of the illusion she had cloaked herself with, were a deep, electric blue and he could feel the hairs on his arms stand on their own when he stared at them.

The most shocking thing about her, however, had been the silver bow she wielded… And the silver arrow knocked and aimed at the same spot in his chest he felt was being targeted by the cat before.

He thought it could be a heretic goddess, but realized that wasn't right. The feeling the girl gave off was more akin to that of another god slayer than anyone else. However, she didn't match up with any of the profiles of the other Campione. _A new player, perhaps?_

His pondering was interrupted as he felt a pat on his back and he had to use every ounce of willpower at his disposal not to stab the boy who had done the gesture.

'Oh, Kusanagi-san!' he turned around to address his fellow Campione 'It's you… I- I thought you were someone else…' he trailed off, rubbing the back of his forehead sheepishly and blushing in embarrassment. _Control yourself, do not let this get the best of you…_

'Really? Who?' the younger boy asked, looking at the redhead and then following his gaze to the place where it had been moments before 'What were you looking at, Emiya-sempai?'

Shirou frowned.

'There is a girl on the roof!' he barked as he turned his head around, but found nothing up there but the schools' clock 'B-but… There was a…' he trailed off in confusion.

'Err, I think it's better if we get in. We don't want to run late…' Godou proposed with an honest smile as he walked for the entrance.

Shirou thought about what he had seen and dwelled on it until he realized that he could probably deal with this better once he was inside. He nodded at his friend, who had turned around to look at him and nodded in return as he ran to catch up with him.

Once inside, he felt a bit better. He could feel the presence of the huntress fading away. Even so, he couldn't help but glance outside through the windows every now and then as they went to class. Something was off with the school today, and by off he meant _off_ as in "something has gone horribly wrong and I have to find out before it turns the school into a warzone".

It didn't take long to find that the sensation was coming from the other side of the building. He felt the urge to just dash through the school and find out what was going on. However, his more sensible side made him wave it off and leave it for when they were close to their classroom.

As soon as they arrived at the door, Godou turned around to regard him with a concerned look. 'You can feel it too, can't you?'

Shirou nodded. When two Campione felt something odd, they knew it would be either a divine beast or a heretic god. The other thing was that bad stuff would often happen to the two of them when they were together. So that meant that they had to go and take a peek or at least, one of them would have to. Better be him since Godou was still a bit clueless about how things worked when it came to the dangers of the supernatural the one with a knack for dealing with these kinds of things. Shirou himself wasn't either, but he had been dealing with them for a while longer and was more used to them.

'I'll go' he proposed as he turned his gaze towards the hallway that led to one of the central staircases 'You can sit this one out.'

'Thank you, Emiya-san' he bowed before going into their classroom. He still had five minutes before class started, so he could just walk there and take a brief look before coming back.

* * *

Thalia Grace had seen better days…

...And that wasn't just because she had risked her ass by using the mist to mask herself from someone who was obviously clearsighted. The guy she was asked by Lady Artemis to watch over had been none the wiser about her presence until very recently. However, when he had finally noticed her, the first thing he did was to summon a sword from out of nowhere! Naturally, she had pulled an arrow and nocked it into her bow the moment he did that.

It would've been easy to just shoot him dead on the spot if it wasn't for that other half blood to come in! She was the Lieutenant of the Hunters, but even she couldn't take on two god-slayers. If Artemis was right, these _Campione_ were on par with children of the big three, and one of them was particularly powerful. She could take on one and have a chance to win, but two were out of her league. If only Percy was here…

 _Focus Thalia! He's not here yet, but he's coming and you know it!_

So now she was eating breakfast in a small café not far away from the school the two boys and her supporting party attended. _Jounan Academy, wasn't it?_ She recalled. The name sounded distinctly normal in her mind. It was far more 'normal' than the stranger names she had heard from Artemis during her briefing.

So now she was here, in Japan. She had been the first to arrive since Artemis would have to pick up the rest of her hunters back at Camp Half Blood and tell them about everything, dealing with the Final Prophecy and the camp gearing up for it. The Second Olympian Riot had left no casualties, but like always, there had been a few broken bones and a little blood and the campers needed to take some time to heal. She would also need to go to Camp Jupiter and request the help of her brother Jason. Granted, with the Sibylline Books, the position of augur was no longer needed, so it had been abolished after Octavian's 'heroic sacrifice' when he attempted to fire an onager at Gaea and had been unknowingly latched his toga onto the missile and fired himself into an early grave. Then again, nobody liked him anyways. Plus, Octavian's sacrifice had stopped that insane bitch. In a way, he had killed two birds with one stone, even though he was one of the birds.

In a way though, things had become a bit _boring_ after that. The monsters had somehow shrunk in numbers, their ferocity had also vanished and even the amount of souls in the Fields of Punishment had started to shrink as Hades had decided to move them all to the Asphodel Meadows and force them to be reborn after an unspecified time in the underworld. It made Thalia feel a bit better, but she was still annoyed at how boring things had turned after that. The hunters themselves were pretty bored as they had very little to hunt, and spent most of their time on the move or lounging around near a lake or waterfall, playing mythomagic and exploring. They were hunters, not adventurers, so this, while able to keep them from being bored, wasn't nearly as good as what they did before Gaea had been defeated. At least Phoebe and those hunters who had fallen to Orion would be able to enjoy Elysium now that they knew that the hunters were no longer at risk. _Better than being surrounded by monsters I guess_.

After sitting down and eating a couple of the pancakes she had ordered, she looked up to notice two women who were discussing with each other in the entrance before a little girl butted in between them.

She froze…

One of them had long blonde hair tied on a side tail and strangely enough, red eyes and was looking curiously at the girl below, whose eyes were both green and red at the same time, something that made the three stand out even more, but what stood out more than either of them was the third woman. Using a loose, shoulderless top similar to her partner, but yellow instead of black and a blue miniskirt, the woman's long auburn hair was tied into a side tail. She had a dependable, motherly air to her and despite hints here and there, had rather western looking eyes like her partner and the child. Had it not been for the deep blue eyes, she would have totally thought her superior decided to take two of her hunters for breakfast.

She looked pretty similar to Lady Artemis…

Granted, there were major differences that meant they were definitely not similar enough to pass for twins, but they could easily be related. If she didn't know any better, she could easily have been a demigod daughter of the Goddess of the Hunt. The eye color and the way she carried herself were the only things that made Thalia realize she wasn't related to her superior and mother figure. The woman was also older than Artemis when she assumed her teenaged form, which she only did during some Olympian meetings, preferring to keep her child-like form whenever possible.

'Where should we sit Fate?' the woman asked the blonde besides her as she looked at a group of empty chairs near the back of the café.

'Over there seems fine' the blonde answered, pointing at an empty table besides were Thalia was seated. However, there were only two chairs, which struck Thalia as an odd choice.

 _Better to just get the bill and make a run for it… There is something off about these three…_ Thalia thought as she took a large slice of her pancakes and shoved it into her mouth before downing it with a glass of orange juice and looking behind her at the counter. She swallowed it all before hastily asking for the bill.

As soon as it came, she busted her _La Defense_ credit card, paid on the spot and bolted for the door. While almost no one even bothered in trying to know her reason for her sudden departure (and the place was mostly empty anyways), the two women and the girl who were about to sit down couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable. After all, it wasn't every day that you saw someone leave as soon as you choose to sit close to them. It seemed a bit rude to them.

'Eh… What just happened?' the auburn haired woman asked, looking at her blonde companion 'Fate?'

'I… I don't really know'.

For her part, Vivio couldn't care less. She had pulled over one of the chairs from the now empty table close to theirs and sat down. She simply looked at her mothers as they talked about the black haired girl's strange behavior. They were a bit bewildered by her outburst, but otherwise seemed mostly alright. That said, it still made all of them more than a little bit curious. They wondered what could've made someone leave so fast for no good reason. It couldn't have been them, could it?

'Well' Nanoha said, sighing and sitting down across Fate 'I guess we shouldn't look into things too much, they might start bogging us down a bit. I think I've seen her before though, perhaps during our vacations in the US?'

'Yeah' Fate scratched the back of her head, though her eyes were still fixed on the door 'I… I suppose we could overlook it, at least for now'.

...

In her defense, Thalia had barely managed to leave before the two women found something was up with her, turning a corner and hiding among some plants outside a nearby flower shop.

It hadn't been that they had been dangerous or anything, but Thalia couldn't help but feel that they too had clearsight. That was always a problem in and on itself, and usually didn't mean any good to the Hunters. If they had clearsight and seemed to be together, then there was a decent chance that they might not be normal people, and the lieutenant of Artemis had enough on her platter as it was with the two god slayers. The last thing she needed was two mages getting involved in what would soon be the mother of all prophecies.

 _I have enough… Problems as it is! I have to get away from them and make myself scarce now!_

So she headed for the only safe place she could find…

* * *

In school, Shirou was walking at a leisurely pace towards the principal's office. It wouldn't be his first time there, but he was still taking his time. He didn't know what awaited inside and he felt his stomach flip as he approached. It was good he had insisted on Godou staying in the classroom. He'd rather deal with this himself and not involve him in something he would rather not deal with.

As he finally turned around the corner and reached the Principal's office, he opened the door slightly to find the source of the disturbance and was both confused at what he found.

Inside was a group of about 8 teenagers around his age, all foreigners, waiting to be assigned a class and whatnot. Though most seemed to not mind his presence, one of them, a boy with long auburn hair and a formal blue, school long coat glanced at the open door briefly, prompting Shirou to flinch.

His eyes were a very, _very_ cold and icy blue that seemed to send shivers down his spine. Despite his cold gaze, he simply smiled, winked at him and then turned back towards a short haired blonde who proceeded to tie his long, soft mane into a ponytail, occasionally stopping to take the hairband in her mouth and pull his hair tighter.

 _'_ _He seems… oddly familiar…'_ Shirou mused as he turned to leave and let the door shut close behind him. Before he could delve any further into his thoughts, he heard the school's vice principal speaking to them.

'Alright, so… Mr Graves, Ms Mercer and Ms Castell are to go to… Class 5… First year right?'

'Yes sir' a clear female voice answered.

'Which leaves Mr and Ms Saint Argent and…' the vice principal continued, but Shirou did not stay behind to listen to anything else. Three of the new students would be coming into his and Godou's class, so he could tackle that head on afterwards...

…At least they would be together then.

So he went to class, trying to come up with a plan on his way back. Naturally, many emerged, but only one could actually work. He certainly hoped it did. Things were starting to get confusing again and he didn't wanted to be caught in another mess like with Venus last time. His hunch was telling him he wouldn't be a victim to someone's plans like he was before, but he still felt something was going to happen, and it wasn't a good thing. Hopefully, it wasn't that big of a deal. He just wanted to have some peace for a while. Even someone so powerful could use some rest. He was pretty sure that if another battle caught him off guard, he'd be in a worse shape that he already was and that didn't sound good to him.

* * *

 _Warning: The entire story will be being retooled for the time being. There won't be any reuploads though. I also do apologize for the long wait again. I will see to it that this story is retooled and updated before the day ends..._

 _~AsGryffynn._


	4. Ambush!

_**So disclaimer is in front page, I will adjust as needed, whatever... You know only my OCs are mine and that's all that matters...**_

* * *

After having had a peek in the office, Shirou went to class, trying to come up with a plan on his way back. Naturally, many emerged, but only one could actually work. He certainly hoped it did. Things were starting to get confusing again and he didn't want to be caught in another mess like with Venus last time. His hunch was telling him he wouldn't be a victim to someone's plans like he was before, but he still felt something was going to happen, and it wasn't a good thing. Hopefully, it wasn't that big of a deal. He just wanted to have some peace for a while. Even someone so powerful could use some rest. He was pretty sure that if another battle caught him off guard, he'd be in a worse shape that he already was and that didn't sound good to him.

As he arrived in his classroom, he saw Godou with his usual bored expression. Erica was talking with Liliana, whereas the rest of the class seemed to be gossiping about something, no doubt the new students that would soon be joining them. He just hoped it wouldn't be so soon, otherwise, he'd be caught like a deer in the headlights, rather than on his seat like the rest of the class.

So naturally, when he sat down, he felt a bit relieved.

'Anything?' Godou inquired, brushing off a question from someone behind him.

'Nothing…' Shirou lied.

'Really?'

'Really. Well, not really. I found there are a couple of new students, but nothing else of worth.'

Godou frowned before turning Shirou around, patting his back.

'New students?'

As if that was his cue, their English language teacher entered the room. Much to Shirou's relief, he hadn't been replaced as reports would otherwise suggest.

Perhaps he had blown things out of proportion and there was nothing to be worried about.

'Well class, good morning' the teacher said 'Today we're receiving a few new students to our class'. As he sat down and started sifting through his papers, he looked at the doorstep 'Common guys, you can come in now'.

It was Shirou's turn to gulp. As expected, the teens he had seen in the principal's office entered the room one by one and stood before class, awaiting the teacher's prompt to introduce themselves. However, if he didn't feel anything odd with them before, he took that back.

He didn't know why, but this guys felt weird. Not in a good way, but not in a bad way either.

The feeling they gave off was naturally different among themselves. The shortest, a girl with shoulder length, layered blonde hair, green eyes and a pert nose gave of a power that could only be identified as 'steel' much like his own. He looked into her emerald eyes and couldn't help but feel as if he and the girl had a connection… And it had nothing to do with being briefly reminded of Saber when looking at her…

There was something there, something that he shared with her, but he didn't know what…

The other was a redheaded girl slightly taller than him, with her long hair tied into a braided ponytail and golden orbs that, once more, seemed to reflect his own. However, her essence was a completely different story…

For a second, he thought he was looking at Gilgamesh…

The girl reeked of power. Everything about her said 'overpowered' and she was trying to hide it! It was insane! The girl smelled like… Victory, conquest, dominance, power, light… He couldn't quite help but compare her to Hyperion, the Titan of… well, those things. There was no other way to put it. He simply knew that if she really wished, she could put him to sleep with a flick of her wrist. Again, he didn't know why, he just knew it was that way.

The third was a similarly red headed boy that, for once, he felt he had nothing in common with… Well, he could say that. The redhead's posture seemed to indicate he was carefree, but not in the usual, laid back sort of way, but more like one of those cowboys or lonely snipers that look harmless… Until they shoot you before you can blink.

However, the most interesting one was the fourth figure. The auburn haired boy he had seen before, whose long hair was tied in a low hung ponytail and whose bangs framed his soft features. His power was a contradiction. It was as if one half was searing hot and the other one was freezing. Even his body seemed to hint at this, as his auburn mane contrasted with his arctic cold eyes and his ivory skin seemed to complement his rosy cheeks. The man was the very definition of a 'bishounen' if there could ever be westerners who fitted the bill.

It almost seemed like, in spite of his relatively tame expression, he was scanning the room, and he could feel him boring holes into him and Godou, but his gaze was aimed at Liliana instead.

Only Liliana could look relatively tame and threatening at the same time. She seemed to be glaring back at the guy, but he simply tilted his head, as if questioning the reason for the aggressive response.

It was then that the teacher choose to make his presence known. 'Alright everyone,' he started 'these new students will be joining our class for the rest of the school year. They come from very prestigious schools and academies in Europe, so please make them feel at home'. He then requested that they introduce themselves.

The blonde was the first one to do so, and just like with another blonde European girl, she seemed to have magically charmed the rest of the boys in the class from the moment she entered the room.

' _Buenos dias!'_ she said brightly in lightly accented Iberian Spanish 'I am Sol, nice to meet you all!'.

 _Sol? Fitting name for someone with such a sunny disposition..._ Shirou thought to himself while looking at the rest of the class. The guys seemed, naturally, entranced. However, the girls were either glaring furiously at the newcomer or had very downbeat smiles that said _"Hello, welcome to Japan! Please don't steal my boyfriend away from me!"._

Typical...

As she sat down, the redhead introduced himself in a roguish way that had the same effect as Sol's cheerful introduction, but on the males of the class instead.

'Name's Bryte, Bryte Donovan, but the girls can call me Mr. Available if they wish...' he quipped before blinking at those who would become his fangirls in the future. The young Emiya couldn't help but look at Godou and nod in understanding.

Surprisingly, the other two introductions were far more subdued even though the the other two were easily the most stunning of the group. The redheaded girl introduced herself as Queen, which, given her almost knightly demeanor, was a fitting name. Finally, the auburn haired boy, Amaranth, also gave his name and, when he and Godou thought the class would erupt into giggles and uncontrollable squealing, he seemingly silenced all the girls with his wintery gaze, as if saying 'I know I am hot, but trust me, you _don't_ want to flirt with me, or I'd turn you into a jackalope' or something along those lines.

Once they had settled down, Godou passed an small note to him…

 _'_ _Psst, I know those guys'_ it read in barely intelligible handwriting.

Shirou scribbled something rapidly, his handwriting being far more elegant than that of his junior, before passing it back to him. Godou frowned as he read the response.

' _So why didn't you tell me anything about it?'_

Another exchange happened.

 _'_ _I didn't know they would be coming to our school'_

Shirou wrote his response and then threw the ball back at Godou. He didn't turn around, but he swore he could hear a swishing sound, as if the note had taken a sharp turn to the left. It didn't return for a little longer than usual.

Godou tapping on his shoulder didn't help.

'Shirou-senpai, about the note…' he trailed off before the ball was thrown back to them, landing in Shirou's desk as he unfolded it and read what was inside.

 _'_ _Mind telling us what the conspiracy is all about? Or will we have to start using our tinfoil hats for getting in instead?'_ The response to his comment said, and Shirou almost thought it was machine typed until he spotted the crescents replacing the points in the 'I's and what looked like a near perfect, miniature silhouette of a gryphon at the end instead of a point.

When both he and Godou looked back, they saw Amaranth, smiling amicably, as he waved once at them before going back to his book, which was a fantasy story and not the textbook and the two Campione couldn't help but notice the teacher had seen him reading it and said nothing about it.

It must have been some kind of spell. It would seem so.

Needless to say, he and Godou cut off their little conversation for the time being. It would be better to leave it for later.

After the class ended and they were getting ready for taking lunch, he received an unexpected phone call. Shirou wasn't in the mood, but he didn't seem to care much. After the small incident with the secret note conversation he had with Godou, not much of interest had happened, so he was glad that he would be receiving a phone call since it meant it was important.

He answered the call. He didn't expect to be verbally assaulted by his undead butler.

And since he was Shirou Emiya, he was.

The good thing was that his phone wasn't loud. The bad one was that whoever was on the other side didn't bother in lowering their voice before speaking, or yelling for that matter, into the loudspeaker!

'WHAT THE- Away with you!'

He tried to talk to the voice on the other side of the phone.

'Hello? Who is this?'

'Emiya-sama' his assistant chirped from the other side of the line 'I am having an small problem right now…'

'What is it?'

'Well, they are not dangerous, but they seem to be all over the place'

All over the place?

'What is all over the place? Are you alright'

'Y-yes! It's just that these wolves suddenly surrounded the manor and well, I tried to push them back with a hose, but when I opened the door, they came indoors… It seems they are inspecting the house and looking for something…'

He heard the sound of a pan hitting something, followed shortly by a shrill howl. It was obvious Asuka had hit one of the wolves. Not bad for an undead maid.

 _'_ _Alright, I'll go there right now. Hold on'_ the redhead said as he put the phone back on his pocket and ran off towards the stairwell.

In his defense, he didn't expect to be on fighting duty. He was an undead, sure, but not a fighter. He had been reborn the same he was born. An accountant.

Hence why he was distraught at the boy pointing a sword at him. He seemed pretty pissed off.

'Now, tell me…' he trailed off.

'I can assure you this is all a very big mistake…'

'You are an undead!' he spat out 'Now, the ghost king demands to know who it was that brought you back from my father's realm!'

Ghost king? Was he a god slayer too?

This was starting to sound way too bad for him to deal with on his own. Then again, it wasn't like he could do much. He decided to simply try to bid his time while he could. It was pretty strange. He wasn't used to being ordered around. His master himself more often than not only requested his help, so he couldn't help but find himself inwardly chuckling at the silliness of the situation. This couldn't be worse. Or perhaps it could.

The boy seemed to lose what little restraint he had left when a wolf growled at him. It seemed they weren't on his side, as he was tugging on his pants, trying to pry him off the undead servant. He simply shook his head and kicked the mutt off before looking at the accountant. His victim naturally gulped nervously.

It seemed he had ran out of time, as he turned around towards the windows and groaned. He then turned back to look at the undead accountant once more. His glare seemed to burn holes into the poor servant of the eight Campione as he started walking towards the door. It seemed he was most troubled when it came to him. As strange as it was, the boy looked at him not like a person, but like a corpse. He knew, somehow, what he was, and he could feel that the boy had the power to return him to where he came from. It unnerved the undead accountant, but he didn't let it show. The boy seemed unsure, and he had to play that card for all it was worth. If his boss returned and found he was no longer there, he would be very sad at having lost his assistant.

'I will be back. It seems Thalia got here first' he said. He then ran for the door, shutting it away. However, he could swear he heard an argument outside. Weird.

'There was no need for you to just barge in like that Nico!' a female voice exclaimed. 'What if he had been home?'

'You and I both know he's at school right now' he replied.

'Then why did you come here?'

'I would say something, but I'd rather not point out that YOU are here as well!'

'You just did!'

'At any rate' Nico trailed off, and the undead accountant took this as his chance to come out from where he had taken cover and look outside. The black haired boy was discussing with a black haired girl in a white coat. She had a bow in her hand and an arrow in the other. She seemed to be torn between regarding the house or the boy. 'It seems that acting now might simply draw his fire.'

The girl sighted 'So you're looking to pick a fight with Percy 2.0?'

'No. But they…' he trailed off again. They seemed to perk up and turned in the direction opposite the house, towards the forest.

'What in the…' the girl, Thalia, trailed off as well.

'I think we should get going…' Nico said. He then turned towards the shadow cast by one of the trees and ran into it, vanishing without leaving a trace.

'I guess I should fly…' Thalia murmured, her eyes flickering back and forth between the forest and the house.

Closing her eyes, the girl magically rose from the ground and sped away like a dart towards the forest, flying just above the foliage as if going higher would cause her to fall to her death. The undead servant couldn't help but think that was the case and found himself chuckling at the irony of someone able to fly being afraid of heights.

This was starting to turn from weird to eerie. Something was happening in the city and he didn't like it one bit. Not like he had to anyways.

Amaranth had seen better days…

Suffice to say that his worst problem right now was not just what to eat for lunch. It wasn't how he would break out of class if the need arose. It was unrelated to his problem regarding Japanese driving etiquette. No, it was far worse than that. It annoyed him to no end. This sort of stuff always happened to him. He just couldn't close his eyes for five minutes lest the world turn into a junkyard. Luck just plain hated him. Even after all the stuff he had been through, shit still happened to him. No, he couldn't have a single break. He was stuck. No way he was going to be able to spend a single day without anything wrong happen. His ramblings just had to be enough to fill a book because he was that unlucky. He was cursed. He knew it.

Now Leo 2.0 and Frank II were probably running towards the same point. He totally knew he shouldn't have trusted Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo of all demigods to cooperate! Granted, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the royal scuffle they had made had attracted a Phantasmal Beast here and it was very likely Leo 2.0 noticed on his way home. Frank II was probably headed there as well. It was hard not to hear that loud scream. Hopefully, deathberry wouldn't come here as well… He didn't need an intercontinental incident in his hands.

As he ran, leaving behind the hallway, Amaranth used the staircase railing as support before throwing himself down the void in between them. As soon as he landed, his party was waiting for him. Nobody said a word. They simply nodded silently in agreement and Amaranth responded in kind before they all walked out of the building into the empty courtyard.

Then they simply vanished, but unbeknownst to them, someone had been watching from afar…

From the last flight of stairs, a very confused Shizuka Kusanagi looked in awe at the place where the empowered souls had been moments ago.

By the time Nico and Thalia arrived, the battle was well underway.

They didn't like how badly things were going though.

Two girls, one blonde, and the other having silver hair, lay sprawled on the ground, their outfits were torn in all the wrong places and there was an small puddle of blood forming beneath the silver haired girl's blue dress. Kneeling next to both of them was a brunette girl a year or two younger than them, covering her mouth as tears visibly descended from her eyes. From the looks of things, she was a schoolgirl that had left class.

On the other side of the clearing was a man with short black hair, dressed in what might at some moment had been an school uniform, but one of the legs of his pants had been blown off, and his shirt was open and had tattered ends. He looked like someone who had been stranded on a desert island more than a schoolboy.

The strangest thing was that he was apparently wrestling against a gigantic red bird that somehow had a long tail. The less said about the cannonball at the end of it's tail, the better.

The boy seemed to be doing horribly. The sword in his hand was dented beyond recognition and his legs were bleeding profusely. With a cry, he let go of the sword and tackled the beast head on. In response, the red devil bird screeched, its tail hitting the ground and causing the entire clearing to rumble.

That thing was an elemental…

Thalia knew little of elementals. All she knew was that they were dangerous monsters, they were near immune to divinity and magic, but they were weak against celestial bronze, imperial gold, stygian iron, adamantium, mythril and bone steel. So if that boy was…

He was a Campione. So, so close to an elemental.

Thalia sprung to action as soon as she realized the boy's predicament. If Campione relied on their authorities, then an elemental was pretty much their Achilles Heel. She had been tasked not just with keeping guard over the boy, but over protecting him from any threat he might be unable to face. She knew for sure that the beast would kill him if no one with a real weapon interfered.

Luckily for her, she didn't need to risk herself. Nico flew straight out of the bushes and, with his midnight black stygian iron blade, slashed the devil bird's tail clean off him. Naturally, another thing about Phantasmal Beasts was that they wouldn't just dissolve just like monsters or divine beasts. They needed to land a mortal blow to kill them.

She took advantage of the distraction. Taking out her tent from the pocket, huntress of Artemis Thalia Grace dove for the girls a few meters from the fight and let the tent out of the package.

'First aid time!' she beamed at the brown haired girl as she looked up and around her to realize they were now inside a tent with a full sized coffer with the words _first aid_ written on it to her left.

 _And thank the immortal gods for the Cruciators bestowing them with fluent Japanese!_

Godou was having enough trouble as it was.

Granted, when the History Compilation Committee called, he expected something along the lines of a divine beast or even a heretic god. He didn't expect a run in with a gigantic red bird with a cannonball tail that could create a tornado and which tackled _the boar_ so hard it had been sent flying 300 meters away before vanishing.

Afterwards, he had attempted to keep the beast away from them by using Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi, but apparently, the beasts feathers were so hard that the sword dented when he tried to use it. The only time he had clashed against something so hard was when he fought against idiot Doni's authority, but this was completely different.

For one, when Yuri attempted to use Spirit Vision on the beast, which they had believed was a heretic god until then, not only did the hime miko almost faint. She discovered the thing was no god, and thus, she drew nothing from it.

Which led to _the warrior_ being rendered useless as well.

He had tried to use _the raptor_ but Godou realized how much of an idiot he had been to even think about it. He literally used an authority named _the raptor_ against a _real_ raptor. Naturally, the only attempt he made cost him his left leg.

In the end, he decided to just go with _the bull_ and thankfully, it did work, but he could only tackled the beast back. He was no good at unarmed combat and was more than likely to wind up losing another arm if he tried to pull the bird's wings off.

And he was running out of Pandora juice, and _fast…_

 _Needless to say, salvation always comes when you least expect it…_

The moment he saw the bird's tail hit the ground with a loud thud, Godou instinctively backed off. What he saw impressed him and made him feel even more apprehensive than he had been before. Standing before him and holding a midnight black western sword whose darkness was even deeper than that of his own authority, was a boy around his age, with straight black hair, ghastly, pale skin, a rather scrawny build and dressed in a black jacket, black jeans and black Etnies sneakers. The only hint of color in the boy was an orange tee with the letters 'CHB' on it.

He turned back to look at him, and Godou flinched at his gaze

'You better pull back, god slayer, I don't want this to get ugly' he said nonchalantly as he turned back to face the devil bird, who screeched loudly before lifting up into the skies and started to flap its wings, sending powerful gusts of wind into the clearing and threatening the two boys' footing.

Before the ghastly boy lost his footing, he leapt into the air and back flipped as he stabbed the black blade into the bird, causing it to plummet loudly to the ground. Rather than dissolving into golden dust. The bird simply fell and stayed on the ground. It was dead.

The foreigner turned towards Godou and extended his hand 'Nico di Angelo. Son of Hades and Ghost King' he grinned sheepishly 'pleasure…'

'Godou. Kusanagi Godou' the Japanese boy answered in kind as he stretched the hand of the guy that had saved their lives. 'What the hell was that?'

'I guess you mean the bird' Nico offered as he glanced at the downed juggernaut 'Phantasmal Beast. Relative of Hraesvelgr. Not much that I know other than the species being names after its predecessor.'

'N-no, I mean, what kind of beast is that? I've never fought something like that before!'

Nico pondered the question before looking past Godou 'I think someone who can answer that question better than I can is in the way.'

The young Campione scratched his head. What was he…

Oh…

Coming their way was Amaranth and his whole entourage. They were all dressed in oddly customized variants of their uniforms _So it'd seem they indeed became students at my school._

As soon as Amaranth arrived, the air in the clearing changed. Godou couldn't tell what it was, but he felt the power of his authorities waning again.

Granted, Amaranth didn't seem to notice. He simply waved at Godou and smiled brightly 'There you are!'

'Me?' the clueless Kusanagi asked, pointing at himself.

'Not you! Nico! I mean, seriously!' he made a beeline for the boy in black before stopping and nodding at him 'How's Percy?'

'He's fine. His group will be coming here soon but…' the Ghost King trailed off before he looked behind him towards where the beast had been and readied his sword.

'I guess talking will have to wait' he said as he looked back at Amaranth 'It seems we have company'

Everyone turned around just in time to see six other opponents emerge from the forest. Nearly all of them set their sights on Godou, but one of them kept it's eyes affixed towards the other side of the forest. He seemed apprehensive. The beast then screeched loudly. The bird's howl sent shivers down everyone's spines. It then made a beeline for them, flapping its wings frantically. The beast lifted his tail. Before anyone could react, it sent a sonic shockwave that knocked everyone off their feet. It then started to peck at the ground.

After noticing that the creature seemed alarmed, the rest of the clearing fell into a deep silence.

Almost everyone noticed it now. The birds had all but stopped dead on their tracks, not a single one of them moving. It seemed they could feel them too.

The presences moving towards them were amongst the strangest things anyone in the clearing had felt. They felt like heretic gods, but there was a hint of humanity in there. Before any of the birds did anything else, the whole forest was shaken by an earthquake and more presences emerged.

Godou then realized that Amaranth was among them. His power was not like that of a heretic god or Campione, but rather, more akin to that of a mage. However, the amount of mana he gave off was staggering. If he was right, it could easily be over a hundred times the amount of power he wielded.

Then from the skies, a horse barged in and rammed one of the devil birds into the ground. He then charged another two devil birds, knocking them out as well.

It was the newcomer's turn to smile 'Tempest!' he bellowed.

The horse then turned around and bowed gently before jumping over them and towards someone who seemed to be flying in a small funnel cloud, heading towards them at the speed of the wind. The newcomer was blonde and seemed rather tall, but those weren't the only impressive things. He was riding alongside a giant metallic dragon with a scrawny looking guy and another blonde, this one a girl, hugging him tightly from behind.

One of the devil birds tried standing. He was then blindsided by a tidal wave that sprung from the forest. It initially seemed impossible to all the onlookers, but all the confusion was cleared when a boy not unlike the blonde one, but with black hair, emerged, wielding a sword that seemed to glow with a bronze hue in the sunlight. He smiled at the beasts.

"Percy!" Amaranth shouted "the tails!"

He then jumped towards the devil birds and slashed one of their tails off by summoning a jet of pressurized water from his blade. The blonde guy finally arrived and started distracting the devil birds while the black haired boy, Percy, severed their tails.

Amaranth then went into the fray himself, kicking the beasts in their snouts and seemingly being able to keep up with them despite their speed, just like the other youths that had been dragged into the fight.

Godou was starting to get more confused by the minute. Who were these people? He knew Amaranth, but it seemed like he was a completely different thing than what he was used to dealing with. He didn't act like a Campione, and his power was too vast to be that of a mage. The other two guys felt more like Campione, but something told Godou they weren't fellow god slayers either.

Naturally, his head spun pretty fast even as he tried to gather his wits.

However, Liliana herself was having a different problem.

The young fairy knight had seen them come from out of nowhere and she still couldn't believe herself. She had dealt with many things in her life, but she never thought that she would live to see them in person.

They were supposed to be a fairy tale. Granted, Liliana's family seemed to know about them, but she thought they were a myth. Then again, when you deal with god slayers, no myth is just a fairy tale. She should've known better! The girl really wanted to whack herself in the head for this one. She was the knight here, she was supposed to know about this stuff.

So why was she still unable to believe it?

It was as if all she had known for the last few months had come crumbling down. The idea that they existed, that _she_ was one of them, made her feel like she was breathing pepper spray. It was something that made her feel scared and full of excitement at the same time. She knew she had to know more about them, and she had to do it now.

Things were now much worse. He didn't like it one bit. And he shouldn't.

Godou flew straight into the fray. He didn't want to miss on this. He had to help them. Even if the first devil bird had made one hell of a number on him, he could still lend them a hand, right? There was no way he could just sit there. He had to do something. Anything would do. So he did what he did best and jumped in.

He flew at the bird that the blonde boy was fighting, kicking him before stabbing his sword into his plumage. The authority, however, didn't put an scratch on the beast.

Oh crap.

The beast slashed Godou's ribs open with its claws. It then screeched loudly. It then flew towards the blonde guy. Before he could do anything, the beast rammed him head on.

"Jason!" the black haired boy cried out as he slashed at the beast from behind. The bird then turned towards him only. The beast almost bisected him. However, a jet of water hit it head on and sent it sprawling many feet away. Jason stood up and smiled. The black haired boy had saved him. Godou sighed, thankful. It seemed those two were used to fighting together. Nonetheless, Godou was thankful he hadn't been hurt. He doubted even a Campione like him could survive a hit like that.

The battle was over the moment a whirlwind of flames swallowed three of the birds away, leaving nothing behind. The entire clearing fell silent after a few seconds.

For one, the auburn haired youth only smiled as he headed back towards his friends. He didn't seem to pay any mind to what had just happened.

He then turned around to address anyone in the clearing "If anyone has questions, I will answer all of them in due time, but for now, allow me to treat you to some breakfast. It's on me".

Just like that, everyone started walking in his direction. Naturally, Erica was suspicious, but since Shirou too was moving towards them, he thought it might be for the best to just go along and hope for the best. It wasn't like the guy who just saved them all.

All he wanted was answers. Unlike many people he knew, however, he didn't want them for himself. He simply wanted to know whether the new guys meant harm or not. He didn't crave knowledge. He wasn't like Erica. Not even like his senior. Shirou might have been nice, but he craved power too.

Odd as it was, it seemed to Godou like everyone had heard him, as he saw a few of them turning back to look at him. He found this pretty unnerving, to be honest.

Perhaps all he needed were some donuts and coffee. His head was already turning into gutter trying to find the different ways this could go wrong.

 _Guess it's now or never then…_

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 _ **Fair warning after this… the story is finally starting up. Apologies for the obnoxiously long delay (this delay was brought to you by 343 Industries) and anyone whose team I might have ruined in Halo 5 Warzone Multiplayer.**_

 _ **Now, onto the serious stuff, some people have said that the OCs are overpowered. While that is an impression they give (this is a power in and on itself), their power is not what it seems like. Their abilities are compressed. Like Ichigo Kurosaki's bankai, their mana is far more vast than their powers. When adjusted for inflation (sorry, I just had to sneak a pun in at least once in this chapter), their power is on average slightly below a Campione. Naturally, they can enter a god mode where their powers skyrocket, but only for a short period of time and at the risk of damaging their body.**_

 _ **After this chapter, the story will finally start moving at a better pace. I was bidding my time to allow some reviews in. That's all folks… at least for now…**_


	5. Recon

**As Cortana would say, blah, blah, blah... no need to be redundant or act pedantic here... disclaimer is currently up at the first page and as of this reading applies all the same. I claim no rights to anyone in this work except for those in The Celestial War.**

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Right now, Percy Jackson could only think of donuts. If Amaranth was right, the bakery he was being taken to had blue pastries as well, and Percy could use a good fix of those. It was par for the course for him, but something else worried him. He thought about the battle with the devil birds and found himself wondering what would have happened to the Japanese guy if they had arrived too late. It seemed that Amaranth had been right. Campione were strong, but all they had was power. They lacked the skill to wield it. They lacked precision. They were grenadiers with a sniper rifle.

It was sad to behold. Though in Percy's mind, he figured they'd be old men like their parents, rather than demigod age guys and girls.

As they walked, he couldn't help but wonder if it was how Campione as a whole were or whether it was just the Godou guy not being on par with the rest. He had seen Godou fighting and his strength was on par with a big three demigod on his or her element, but that was it. He was like Jason… someone very strong that had a field advantage at all times, but otherwise they were evenly matched.

At least in his mind, they all needed a good rest. A nice coffee and donuts would help. He doubted they served blue donuts like Amaranth had promised though. Even then, he could use something for his hunger. He hadn't eaten anything since the day before. Ideally, he'd have eaten something upon arriving, but he had been too tired by his flight to do even something as easy sounding as ordering something.

Oddly, he felt a few cups of coffee might feel the empty void inside him, perhaps thanks to the knot of worry forming inside him. Even though Percy was hungry, the mission as a whole was worrying him more with each passing second. Devil birds rarely appeared in groups. Either the situation had worsened considerably or someone was in an animal freeing spree.

Hopefully Amaranth would explain what had happened back there. They needed a good explanation. Good thing Clarisse wasn't around. Odds are things would have worsened with her in this place. Children of Ares were rowdy.

The mission was not an stealthy scheme, but they still needed to keep to themselves for now. Right now, or at least until they had more information on how things were around here, they'd have to lay low. Clarisse was unable to understand the phrase in the first place. That said, he himself wasn't good at it either. He still had to work in his spying techniques.

Odds are that the battle before had been planned. It all seemed too convenient to be a natural coincidence. He doubted even the fates had seen that one cropping up.

Perhaps Hephaestus had been right. The ones behind this were ready to do anything to defeat them. They wanted their prize and they would stop at nothing to have it. If that was true, then they were in trouble. He hoped he was wrong.

Even though he didn't like musing on what could happen in the near future, he couldn't help it. It annoyed him to no end. He wished someone would distract him. Perhaps Annabeth had something to soothe his nerves. Or perhaps a kiss would help. Or perhaps he just needed to eat something. Yeah, food would probably help him deal with this better. Something warm and nice was sure to calm him down.

It was then that he saw the restaurant. It was an small cafe. It sat in a corner. Despite it's size, it looked like a pretty nice place. He doubted they'd all fit in though. He just hoped they had enough food for them all. He didn't want to walk around having to look for food any longer. Just a donut would be enough for him. Perhaps a coffee could help too, but all he wanted was a piece of pastry to feel his stomach.

As soon as they arrived, Amaranth and the crusaders walked straight to the bar. It was being serviced by a woman with glasses.

While she seemed pretty nice, something struck Percy as odd. It was the same feeling he had when he met someone who was potentially dangerous. He immediately took an step back before looking at Annabeth.

Apparently, he was the only one who had felt it. Annabeth seemed rather unfazed. Oddly enough, Leo seemed taken aback as well.

Great, so only he and Leo felt odd here. This wasn't good. Stuff like this always meant something bad for them. Hopefully Jason could feel it with the same ease as well.

He went straight towards Jason. When the woman spoke, his senses' feeling of danger skyrocketed.

Perhaps she was using charmspeak on them, but Annabeth would've noticed. Leo didn't seem hypnotized. He himself didn't feel anything. Perhaps Jason did.

It hadn't dawned on him that perhaps there was something completely different that he was overlooking.

For his part, Amaranth had been told that this place offered really good coffee not found anywhere else in the city, so he had wanted to try it out himself. While the place was small, it was large enough to accommodate them all. He headed straight to the counter where a honest looking woman with glasses was overlooking the pastries on display. Behind, an older woman seemed to be opening boxes in the kitchen. It seemed that the mages that had been here before had been right. As far as he knew, this was a family run cafe. Perfect place to unwind for now. He also preferred smaller cafes to the run of the mill huge cafeterias. Starbucks was the only exception and it was too far away. He needed something in his mouth and unlike some of the more outspoken members of his group, he didn't want to wait any longer.

He supposed waiting until latter to have his fix of Doritos might have not been the best idea, even if he frowned eating at school.

Even if he could find another place to eat nearby, he decided it might have been a good idea to stop over later to check the place out. When the woman noticed him, she smiled happily at him.

"Hello, is there anything I might help you with?"

Needless to say, the first thing the South African did was inspect his surroundings and note that there were a few people other than his group in the cafe. He smirked to himself as he thought about what he was about to do.

He pointed towards the different pastries on display, specifically looking at a tray full of chocolate pretzels, wondering how many there were.

"I will take all of them..." Amaranth started before moving towards a group of colorful cupcakes "all of these, and please set the blue ones apart in a different platter..."

As he started piling up orders, the people in the cafe started making odd comments regarding the gargantuan purchase order he was placing. In a group of tables near the back of the cafe sat his friends and the rest of the entourage that he decided he was fine tagging along with.

He then smirked brightly as he turned around to address the crowd "Everyone take your pic, it's on me!" He beamed loudly.

The moment he did, everyone in the restaurant cheered as they made a line in the counter before Amaranth took out his credit card to pay. He then looked at Percy as he was handed a box full of blue muffins with a dark glare. They had only seen each other a couple of times, but knew how to communicate without words well enough. Amaranth's gaze sent a clear message...

"We need to talk..."

Percy glared back in return "I know..."

To say that Shirou Emiya was confused would be an understatement.

After being invited to take what he wanted from a cafe where he was sharing lunch with his fellow Campione Godou and realizing that they were technically skipping classes, the only question that came to Shirou's mind was 'what the hell is going on'.

The mental question had been promptly answered by one of Amaranth's many friends. The girl, (it had to be a girl, her name was Queen if he was right) was tall, standing at around 6'0" and had scarlett red hair tied into a ponytail that hung all the way to her knees. Her features were soft yet hardened, obviously from having been in lots of battles before. What struck him as jarring were her eyes: the same molten gold color as his own adorned her face, yet if Shirou had seen his before and seen his resolve to return to Sakura, hers seemed to hold on to a hope that she believed was close to. They were determined to find something, but what he didn't know.

The unnerving thing was how she was staring at him with puppy dog eyes for some reason.

Placing a bagel on the platter and chewing on what was left of the first bite, Shirou decided he wanted to know more about them and she was the best way he had right now of finding out, given how Amaranth had vanished after pulling what seemed like a publicity stunt by having the entire cafe hand out food for everyone inside with him picking up the tab.

He didn't get a chance to ask anything though.

"You're very confused regarding my presence here, are you not?" The redheaded girl asked "I don't think we have been introduced before, at least not personally" she continued as she smiled charmingly at him and tended her hand for a shake "Name's Queen. Queen Mercer, but just call me Queen. I heard you guys often use the family name here, so I'd appreciatte if you don't use that one."

Shirou nodded "Alright... Queen then... I suppose I should introduce myself" he said standing up to shake her hand "Emiya. Shirou Emiya, but you can call me just Emiya or Shirou or the one you feel more comfortable with."

"I suppose I'll do Shirou" she nodded in acknowledgement as they both sat back down again "Say... You're probably confused about what just happened."

Shirou's expression soured slightly, but he tried to take on his fake king persona "I just wish to know what are your intentions within this place. I don't mind having you around, but things might become too problematic if you represent a threat."

"A threat you must suppress" deadpanned Queen.

"Exactly."

She tilted her head in confusion "Just one question though..."

"Go ahead."

"Why do you sound so prissy?"

If there was a sound of glass breaking around somewhere, odds are it wasn't glass. Shirou's self confidence had taken a demolition ball to the face. How the hell had his fake king act been dismantled so easily by a girl who barely knew him? "What gave me away?"

"I tried the same thing once and it took Amaranth five minutes to realize it was just an act."

He snorted "well, he sounds like a good guy."

"He's very perceptive. It's the reason he's so powerful. He knows when something's off and has a response for everything and everyone."

It was then that the young Emiya relaxed. He doubted Amaranth and his entourage meant harm if they were like this "Alright, I'll say it again. What brings you here? I think you already know I am not normal myself..."

"You're a godslayer..." Queen trailed off as she looked at the window behind him. Shirou himself peeked at it, but found nothing out of the ordinary, even though Queen had a very troubled expression on her face "...and I suppose that you were a mage as well, right?"

He nodded, but pressed on as curiosity drove him to ask away to try and find out more "How did you find that out?"

Queen stared earnestly "We had reports we had to secure from the higher ups at our supporting organization. They were an ossified group of fools and old men in charge of running the show and they kept us locked out of all important information up until Amaranth and our friends deposed them after we rallied everyone in the current generation of Crusaders to depose them. Up until then, we were only dealing with situations that only a few knew thanks to leaked information and that one was a very serious case involving none other than one of the most powerful beasts in the known world. However, even then, it wasn't until Amaranth and the rest of the Directory found the library full of documents that they realized the world was in a far more dire situation than we thought even when we were dealing with that thing and a few crazed idiots plans."

Shirou pondered the information briefly.

"So you just told me something very important."

"That is..."

"You mentioned you are crusaders. That is the same as Cruciator, right?"

Queen nodded slowly "If you want to be antiquated, yes. That is the name we used during the days of the Holy Roman Empire. Nowadays, we're just crusaders."

"Just crusaders?"

"Sort of. Crusaders are a fuzzy thing. The original ones were just normal people, but we took upon the name to refer to us, who are heroes of a superior kind. There are normal heroes and then there were Cruciators, the enforcers of the Holy Roman Empire wielding powers on par with the divine. However, our legacy is older. We started using the name crusader since it's one of the translations of the word Cruciator. As you might wonder, there was something that set us apart from the rest of the heroes in this world. Heroes are powerful, but not legendary powerful. Those of us who utilized new esoteric magical powers over the Arcane, Occult and Hermetic ones wielded more powerful weapons and commanded greater power. We were essentially superheroes. El Cid, Astolfo, Ilya Muromets, Cu Chulainn, Theseus... They were all crusaders. Heroes like King Arthur, Heracles and Jeanne d'Arc were well..."

"They were heroes. Normal heroes..."

"Perceptive aren't you?"

Shirou smiled "...Perhaps..."

As he set himself at peace, Shirou started asking more questions regarding the nature of the people who, according to the informant he had received a few days earlier, might harbor information that was vital to him.

Sakura was closer to him. And he was going to get to her.

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 **Warning: Currently, I am cutting off this chapter since the rest of it is undergoing repairs, so the word count is very small. The reason for publishing it like this is so that it is easier to understand the events of the next chapter, since you might want to read this one through before jumping to the rest of the story.**


	6. The Dragons stir, the Princess knows

**Disclaimer: All works of Type-Moon and Jo Taketsuki are exclusively their property. The work 'God Slaying Blade Works' and all of its characters is the exclusive property of Marcus Galen Sands, used with prior permission. This work has been made for entertainment only. If you wish to criticize, reviews are welcome, but you may do so constructively. Bathory Kardenis, Negati Winter, Arin Vesceron and other characters from the series 'Raze the Stray' and belong to TwoZeroTwo.**

 **Percy Jackson & The Olympians, the Kane Chronicles, The Heroes of Olympus and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard are trademarks of Disney Hyperion and the sole property of Rick Riordan. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and all associated names and concepts are the property of Masaki Tsuzuki. High School DxD is the trademark of Ichiei Ishibumi. Bleach is the trademark and exclusive property of Tite Kubo and Akatsuki no Yona is again not my property (as if!) either. **

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(Cafe - Amaranth's POV - 10:43 AM)

Time to lay the plan out on the table. If I didn't, nobody would understand what would be happening here soon. Better tell them while I can.

Alright, so here's the thing... Three months ago, I was a 16 year old honor student in Durban in South Africa, then this girl from Spain comes and tells me that I descend from a legendary hero from the olden days and then I am chased by a werewolf out of the city. I move to Europe, find that there are millions like me and after a while get embroiled in a civil war among crusaders, a terrible conspiracy plotted by the EU, an insane man's dream of killing Jesus, fight off hordes of giants, topple a god or two and then along with my friends topple the monster from Apocalypse. Then I have to help my PE teacher get away from alien mages who consider him an outlaw, rescue a friend's sister from said alien mages and make contact with a former schoolmate who was on the run from said mages. As if things weren't convoluted enough, I am sought after by a goddess of the hunt who seeks to induct me into her hunters (much to the surprise of a bunch of demigods) and then meet the grim reaper (reapers) themselves. Finally, I have to review 500 years of due paperwork. Thankfully, since this was new management, I could just burn them away.

Very confusing, ain't it?

I will elucidate. That translates into me explaining myself better. Just cross your fingers so that I don't mess up.

As for me messing up, it happens often, so you'll have to bear with me. Sorry about that. No, wait, I am not sorry. This isn't my fault at all. I am saying the truth. It's all because of that idiot.

Why did Cao Cao act like an insufferable jerk all the damned time? Ask whoever will answer. Cao Cao was stubborn. That was it. There was no other explanation for his demeanor.

Now, I was in Japan. The world had been at risk a lot recently. One of the friends I made, Percy Jackson, had saved it from Kronos one year ago. Kronos as in "the Titan with the big scythe" and the god of harvest who was the god of not harvest. Seriously, Kronos wasn't Chronos... How the hell had he obtained time control powers?

Then came Jason Grace, who had saved the world from an even bigger bad... Gaia... Yes, that Gaia. How he had done so was not my business, but he did... Oh, then there was Carter and his defeat of Apophis. Then, whoop dee do! Magnus Chase somehow overcame his fear of dogs and tied a rampaging Fenrir back. He literally yanked the dog's chain, so to speak.

Then the Ichigo dude came around... He saved the world from a god wannabee who was named... Aizen, if I recall correctly. He and I had a rough start, but after a stalemate, we both realized we had a lot more in common.

Then, there was my PE Teacher, my German teacher (I only took a couple classes, sue me) and the newest Major of KwaZulu Natal's Air Force...

My PE Teacher, Bathory Kardenis, wasn't from South Africa... He was a literal alien... An alien mage, as if you hadn't heard enough weird stuff. Turns out that on top of that, they were outlaws sought after by an Interdimensional EU clone named the TSAB. My sister told me that he was innocent and after a polygraph it was obvious he was and she had bailed him out before I discovered I was... Whatever I was that I will explain later. Point is, the organization is not only after his ass, but they were hunting for a group of people infected with something called "Eclipse" or something of the sort. Then, it just so happened one of my friends, this buff Russian guy named Sasha (as in Alexander) had a younger sister by the name of Mariya that had disappeared quite a while ago... Guess WHO had her in their custody?

So now, I was dealing with the Time Space Administration Bureau (I bet the TSAB realized STAB made for an horrendous acronym) too, since we managed to travel to their capital and bail Sasha's sister out, along with the group that kept her safe (and who was led by a very pervy dude that I enjoyed playing Halo with now that we were all safe and sound on Earth).

Then it turns out that one of my schoolmates was also in that place!

Sonica Lilian had been a rowdy girl with a penchant for the occult and fortune telling. Everyone called her "Witch" because of how she acted and dressed, but I found she was an adorable witch. Then she vanished into the night. One night no less. Guess were she ended up on?

Yeah, an Afrikaner girl had somehow reached far beyond our planet. Too bad she didn't take a flag to plant on the city and a selfie to Tweet to NASA (Hey Texas! We reached an alien world with people first!) so I could have a good laugh. She had been taken in by a group of Eclipse infected people known as the Huckebein (I called them Hucks because why the fuck not?)

Then, finally... There was me...

I was a 16 year old studying in a rather ostentatious South African academy. I lived in a city by the name of Durban, in a region named KwaZulu Natal. I had a few friends and a crush there. Her name was Selene and she was one year older and of Italian ancestry but before I get carried away again, I have some explaining to do.

A few days before vacations, I had gone to a nearby plaza with a huge open air food court to eat with my friends because I would be leaving with a friend on a cruise trip. However, out of nowhere came a bunch of FrostGiants who decided I had to die. Naturally, the plaza emptied almost certainly instantly. I was pinned in my sit by the chief of the giants' arctic gaze... Then I was rescued by a girl.

The girl in question, Sol, then proceeded to tell me what I was.

Apparently, due to my personality, build and age all matching up, I somehow became the inheritor of the powers of an Ancient Hero. The name for my kind was "Cruciator". The term meant "punisher" in normal Latin, but when translated from Ecclesiastical Latin, it actually referred to crusaders. There were normal heroes still running around... There were demigods (like Percy, Jason and the others), Shinigami (Ichigo and some of his allies) and mages (one of the girls hunting us when we were on the TSAB homeworld), but Cruciators were unique. Some heroes had descendants who inherited their powers and at times, their weapons, but Cruciators were one of a kind variants. We were pretty much the Spartans to normal heroes ODSTs, and sorry for using Halo terminology, but it was the closest thing to a comparison I could find.

Besides a power boost, Cruciators always inherited everything from their predecessors, but the most important point was we had no blood relation. El Cid wasn't my ancestor, but the powers of El Cid belonged to me. Reason? I was like him. I looked the part, I acted the part and I had the blood for playing the part. I might have Irish in me, but I was also an Spaniard. My parents were a bit of both. Father? Irish. Mother? Spaniard. Me? Both. And apparently, just half her heritage was enough.

That was the true difference. We weren't their descendants, but we were their chosen successors. There was also how Cruciators didn't really need a predecessor. Supposedly nameless heroes and even fairy tale characters could all eventually pass on their powers to someone and a Cruciator would emerge. In fact, that was how most Cruciators were born and we were the bulk of heroes. Purebloods were a rarity nowadays, and centuries of descendants who didn't hone their powers, sold their weapons and married weak people led to their powers becoming feeble and fragmented. Only the great ones survived. Yes, Jeanne d'Arc and King Arthur made it.

Now, Arthur was the best hero. He was the most powerful hero ever known... But he was only a hero.

He was the best hero, but not the best Crusader.

It was here that I could show off. I was the successor of the best Crusader.

While King Arthur was the hero of heroes, he wasn't the best Crusader. That honor belonged to El Cid. In other words... It belonged to me.

Which brings me down to what had happened.

Sol had me spirited away after an old werewolf man, a godslayer, had attempted to kill me to claim my sword, Tizona. The sword was the strongest of the Elemental Swords and the strongest Noble Sword (as swords were normally holy or unholy, the category had been created to accommodate weaponry that didn't fit either flavor). As luck would have it, I outsmarted the dude and threw him off a cliff. They were a dangerous bunch. Godslayers were the natural enemies and prey of Cruciators... Well, they and unruly gods and devils. Basically, a Cruciator was an enemy of any force that threatened civilization.

Since godslayers fit the bill, they were the first in our hitlist. However, at the time I was weak, so I ran. Sol took me to Europe and I met my pilgrimage. The pilgrimage, composed of Queen Mercer, Elise Bjorkson, Bryte Donovan, Sol Castell, Helene and Blaise Saint Sylvie, Alexander Vasyliev, Cassandra Soldati and Selene Paolini were also my best friends that I had met during the last three months I had spent as a Crusader.

Crusader and Cruciator are interchangeable too...

So, after arriving in Ireland, which was my first stop after running from South Africa, I had met with Queen. She descended from Nuada and her father, Priest Mercer, had illuminated us on who was chasing me... Us if I included Sol and Helene, who I met on the plane. Turns out the one chasing us was known as Sasha Dejastahl Voban and was a godslayer of the worst kind. I had managed to run away due to sheer luck, as he was very powerful and I was just a newcomer. Then we left with Queen for Iceland, as strange stuff had been happening around the world. I met Elise there. An eternal storm had covered the already shivering country. Then we found out it had been the FrostGiant Hrungnir who had created the storm. He had created it thanks to mind control. Hrungnir was weak. I didn't have any problems defeating him, but we started wondering who was controlling him and whether this was linked to the strange stuff happening around the world. After offing the beast, we flew back.

When we landed in France, I had my first encounter with him...

Paris was the capital of France and home to the largest Crusaders' organization. Helene and Blaise were from there. She was one of the big shots there but when he came around she was powerless. The he in question still irritated me to no end.

Rather than figure out what had been happening around the world, the bastard, Cao Cao, had insisted on taking a bunch of strong Cruciators on a mission to hold supernatural beings hostage. Helene, who had been up until then as resilient as a Commander, suddenly realized no one listened to her.

That was my first deed as El Cid's worthy successor.

I stood up to the dude and trash talked him. Turns out he wasn't interested on the "weaker" heroes. Needless to say, I stood up to him and after some talk, we fought. It was a pretty fast skirmish though. I didn't think anyone would be hurt. Well, nobody was hurt, but something happened.

See, when that happened, I had apparently clashed with a divine weapon and our crashing forces led to the creation of a sonic boom. Normally, this was fairly common but, after I realized that neither of us could move, it was obvious something was up.

Turns out that his weapon was the Spear of Longinus (yeah, _that_ Longinus) and the forces of my sword and his spear clashing led me to experience a vision of El Cid's life that told me what was going on to some extent.

Since I had broken out of that mess first, I had been declared the winner, but both of us took our fair share of followers with us. He took his and left. The weaker heroes followed me and we managed to find a safe haven for them for the time being.

Fast forward a lot of quests across Europe and I was eventually back in Paris... To fight and... Well... Defeat the Antichrist.

Now? After defeating that guy I discovered I would have been better off just dying. The backstory was confusing? Well, I will run it in a list so that you can read down more comfortably...

1\. I was an student in South Africa. My teacher was an alien outlaw and two of my friends were kidnapped by the alien police looking for him.

2\. I was worthy of the powers of an ancient hero.

3\. I travelled Europe trying to figure why there have been so many bad news recently. Made friends.

4\. Fought off a god or two and a few heroes. Had coffee with demigods.

5\. Defeated the antichrist. Turns out the shitfan was his doing and that, most importantly, the world already had to deal with the corpses of Ouranos, Gaia and now this Trihexa dude.

6\. So the world is breaking down since they were huge corpses. Now I have to find something to purify the ambiance so we can live on and progress... The catch is that there are lots of those artifacts and even with the help of lots of heroes, it's still not enough, so now I have to ask ANYONE who I find to join.

7\. You can't find good help these days. My teachers, who was apparently a criminal, was a good tracker though.

8\. I have to deal with the threat of a Korean dragon princess who wants to conquer Oceania (or it might be everything and the parchment was just that messy) and how a group of Japanese women are doing everything to ressurrect her.

Still confusing, but probably less.

So... First thing I learned was that there were good godslayers. They called themselves Campione and two of them, both Japanese, had apparently been nice guys that I could ask for help. There was an Angelina girl who might be willing to help us, but she's playing Zero and I feel convincing her might be a lost cause. After all, what would Annie Charlton do if I told her there were demigods in her home state?

Yeah, there were demigods in California. Roman demigods, because the Greeks were over at a camp in New York. Then there were "magicians", who were Egyptian Pharaoh descendants who lived in Brooklyn and then the Norse demigods, who were scattered across Boston.

Watch things unfold. It's the only way things will start making sense.

So now I was in a cafe, having invited everyone to breakfast to break the ice and hopefully explain to everyone what I was (or what we were) and that I needed their help and was willing to offer assistance. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Simple as that.

Here I hoped it worked out.

* * *

(Crusader Japanese HQ, _The Warrior's Rose_ \- 10:52 AM)

Bathory Kardenis was the kind of person who considered himself pretty level headed.

So he didn't lost his mind when he had to deal with the existence of ancient heroes from another world, gods, magic... It was all second nature. All the stories of Belka had stuff not unlike what he had found on Earth.

But how he had ended up doing research on any potential links between Germany and Belka had almost driven him nuts.

Now, he liked both. In fact, Germany was something he considered "a remnant of Ancient Belka". A country where people spoke the language, dressed the part, acted the part and even ate and drank the part. However, right now the differences and similarities were confusing him. He hadn't slept in three days.

When he took another sip of his Earl Grey, he realized it was cold. Standing up from the desk he was on, he left the office of the research center at the back of the estate and crossed over the doors into the garden. The morning light blinded him, but the tea was the only reason he hadn't succumbed to sleep. The enamel on his teeth were now positively golden, but he had to soldier on.

A mope of red hair appeared on his left side.

"You're doing it again..." The voice said.

"Negati..."

"Don't 'Negati' me! You've been at this three days without sleep Bathory! You are aware that you are not the only one in charge of the research right?" The redheaded girl chided him before sighing and looking at the bracelet on her right wrist "Vorpal Talon, lock the systems on the office". A sound later, the office's door closed itself. It was locked.

It was quite useful. Bathory needed the sleep. Negati needed a reprieve. Everyone happy.

"I still don't understand why you worry so much Negati" Bathory said as he turned around to address her, even though his head was hanging slightly and he had bags in his eyes.

The bags didn't seem to deter Bathory, who walked straight towards the kitchen. In a way, Negati found it funny. He'd never work like in Siba. Something told her he'd rather sleep than work, but the world seemed impressive in a way Bathory couldn't resist. He'd stay awake just to find out more. She couldn't blame him though. The place was nice. It was like Mid Childa, but better. The technology might be either classified or otherwise backwards, but it was still an step up from Siba. She didn't see herself returning. The stress over there was unbearable. Here, she felt free. She didn't want to return. As far as Negati was concerned, Earth was her new home. Nothing would change that. She hoped Bathory and Satel thought the same. Even if Bathory returned, she'd stay. Plus, she felt responsible for some of the stuff she had done here. She liked being a teacher. It was relaxing. Helping children helped too. She hoped he'd think the same eventually. That's all she wanted him to do.

While not all of them had completely liked their new home once they arrived, they had all grown to love it. Even Satel liked being an... Air Force captain... In the SADF.

Yeah, it wasn't the best arrangement ever. However, everyone preferred it to Siba. At least she thought so. No one had complained once they had settled in (not even Satel, which was jarring and for a second she thought he hit his head when they left the prowler ship that had brought them here).

Point was, after a while, they realized they missed the magical side of their lives.

Cue Amaranth one day barging into her office when she was doing school paperwork and a giant dragon chasing after him, only for the boy to deftly incinerate it with power worthy of being on the same league as one of the Three Aces before attempting to explain himself.

Their rescuer was his sister, Rachel, but as it turns out, she had hidden the secret from him. To turn things around, he had hidden his own secret from them. Apparently, magic did exist in this world, but was under a security lockdown since it almost brough a war that would've wound up destroying the world. The way the "Celestial War" sounded, it was a conflict that rivaled the Wars of Reunification of Belka in scope. Though unlike Belka, the advent of technology allowed the catastrophe to be averted, but only just narrowly. It seemed that the origin of the war was magic rather than technology. However, they managed to avert the end of the world. In Belka's case, since technology was the perpetrator, magic couldn't save them the same way technology did on Earth.

It was an irony that forever changed the Sibans way of seeing technology.

After that, it turns out Rachel was also involved in his own affairs. She initially kept both separate to keep the conflicts from worsening, but after the secret was out, they all pledged to help Amaranth, Rachel and their allies in their mission, itching for some action and having a veritable amount of knowledge when it came to magic and conflicts.

They had been wrong. Apparently, this conflict rivaled the Scaglietti incident. That was one hell of a ride that was out of their league, or so they though. After all, that was the problem of veterans and they weren't fit for helping them with it.

The problem had been solved before they arrived. However, they still needed counselors and chapperones, for their missions took them around the world often. Turns out they were now trying to retrieve 777 different objects similar to Lost Logia to do something, and they needed them to help them track them down. Negati's expertise helped out big time, as did Bathory's. Turns out his time with Yautja and Murder Caliente had helped him big time and now he was on to a few weapons himself.

Satel had helped them by providing recon and fielding an small team of SADF cadets who apparently knew of magic and were decent trackers. Arin had been a little more troublesome, since he was used to being on the ground, but was good retrieving leads that might lead them to the objects.

Which took us back to the present were Bathory was overworking himself since he had found out something interesting.

One of the objects they were looking for was in the possession of a man, or so he believed. The reason he had picked that object had been a simple one.

The owner's supposed last name.

Now, it would be easy to nitpick anyone about this, but it had been obvious that the owner wasn't an average person.

Reasons be damned, how the hell was Tiida Lanster alive?

* * *

(Back at Cafe - Amaranth's POV - 10:55 AM)

After taking a while to assuage the worries of the cafe's owner, they left me with the guests alone. There was no one he didn't know. Those that did not know me I knew anyways, and I could drop the bomb in peace now and introduce myself later.

Before I could start, however, the door opened as a very tired Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo arrived, gasping for air.

Thalia was the first one to speak "I... You... Not fair!" She gasped for air as she spoke, prompting me to giggle when she propped herself up on her knees. Nico wasn't that tired, but it seemed that he had seen a ghost, and that was something when you spoke of The Ghost King. It seemed he had already witnessed Emiya's power and was now trying to find a reasonable explanation for those, even though I had already run him through the whole "what is a Campione" schtick.

"Good to know you're joining us guys!" I said in a mocking tone before straightening up "Thalia, if you will..."

Finally settling in Percy's table, Thalia waved her hand. A literal handwave that littered the place with mist. I didn't want anyone to eavesdrop or anything. Nico decided to remain standing, though he snook a glance or two in Shirou's direction.

"Alright. I am gonna make this brief. My name is Amaranth Graves. I am a Cruciator... Or Crusader if you think the former is too archaic. I have already met most of the people here and almost everyone here is already acquainted with one another. As for what I am, I am basically the closest genetic match to an specific hero. That is what a Crusader is. All of my friends over at tables 2 and 6" I nodded, gazing in their direction "...are fellow Crusaders".

"Those over at tables 1 and 5 are demigods" I continued, not stopping to take in the Campiones' reactions "They come from various mythologies, but the ones here for now are only Greek and Roman".

"Tables 3 and 4..." I trailed off, looking at them "I think I've already met Godou".

I then continued "Thing is, we have a message for the Campione and their followers" I started. I gazed firmly in Shirou's direction, hoping to see confusion and not aggression, but they were simply calm. That wasn't what I was hoping for, but it worked "We are not here to hurt anyone. In fact, the opposite is true..." I trailed off, walking towards Shirou and letting my face fall into the solemn, but slightly desperate expression I had used when I had urged Gascoigne to allow me to borrow his cloak "...we need your help... And desperately so".

* * *

(? - Forest near Tokyo - 5:57 AM)

"Jae Ha! Jae Ha! Wake up. It hurts. It hurts so bad!" A voice said.

"Stop crying! I am besides you Hak!" Another one retorted, obviously enraged.

"Grr..." The owner of the second voice grunted. He ruffled his green hair as he looked around him "Where are we?"

The owner of the first voice, Hak, stood up, looking around and taking in his surroundings "Japan most likely. That Graves brat and his Geek patrol must have blasted us off the rim when he detonated the mountain and took the South of the country along for the ride".

Jae Ha rubbed his temples "Whatever it is, that dude has a lot of power".

Hak simply smiled as he looked at the rising sun throughout the trees "Worry not my friend" he smirked, his skin shimmering against the sun "I will find him and off him for us..."

As Hak started walking away, the green haired man followed him. The two finally reached the edge of the forest. The sun was rising from the horizon, tinting the skies crimsom. Hak smiled as he saw the sun rise. The dawn always seemed so distant to him. As Jae Ha stood by his side, his green hair contrasting with Hak's blue, he sighed deeply.

It didn't matter how far it was to Hak, it was impossible to hide the dawn. Even the midnight sun lacked the power to suppress the start of a new day. Now, it was up to him to remind Amaranth of that.

Hak smiled as he closed his eyes, finally at peace with himself "I swear to the King that you will be reborn. You will be back..."

Jae Ha sat on the grass as he looked up at his dreamy friend.

 _"Princess Yona"._

* * *

 ** _For the record, I wouldn't want to be in your place guys. You know you're gonna die long before this story is over right? Why? This is a Seinen fic you fool! *Marik laughter*_**

 ** _In spite of recent backlashes, I am afraid I won't moderate reviews, however, I am ignoring all flames as I see them, so if you don't like it, why read something you hate? I like this thing and I don't like following canon like some do._**


	7. HunterHunting?

This was starting to piss Shirou Emiya off.

He was patient. He was very patient. However, this felt off.

He only had more questions now. That didn't bode well for him. He wanted answers.

All he wanted was one answer and he'd keep to himself. It wasn't that hard. Just one answer. The one he'd been hoping to hear.

So Shirou did the first thing he thought of. He stood up and left. When he glanced behind him, Amaranth was looking at him with a curious glance. He smirked at this. Shirou then left the building. Seems his plan had worked. He wanted Amaranth's attention. If Shirou's hunch was right, Amaranth had the answers he was looking for. Just a few questions and he might have a clue as to how to return to his home.

However, it wasn't what he expected. Shirou certainly didn't expect to bump into anyone. Certainly not a woman a few years older that felt like a Servant from the sheer amount of power she was packing.

"Oh, sorry..." The woman said before she looked inside "Odd, I don't remember the place being so popular... Guess I will just use the back entrance for now..."

Shirou arched an eyebrow at this... Why would she use the back entrance?

"So... You work in this place?" He asked with a curious glance.

"Oh, me? Not really... Well, I did in the past but not anymore. I still help my parents with it from time to time whenever I am around."

"You aren't from around here, are you?" The redheaded boy asked again. Something was seriously off with this woman. She felt not so different from Amaranth and his company. But the power she gave of was different. As with the Crusaders, there was no divinity. Instead, the amount of magical energy was off the charts, eclipsing even his. Believing their power was, somehow, their approach to compensation for their lack of divinity was something his friends would've written off as lunacy, but he was starting to feel that was the case.

"No... I sort of live in, well, another country..." She replied with a reserved tone before she started walking towards the back of the small coffee shop, leaving Shirou alone with his thoughts again. There was definitely something brewing in the works around here...

The door of the shop then creaked open, and Shirou knew it was now or never.

"Can I ask why you left like that?" The voice of the newest hassle in his life said with a pout "Are you trying something funny?"

"I want to know what do you want." Shirou stated sternly.

Perhaps a threat would have sufficed better, but this seemed to work. Before Amaranth opened his mouth, however, he suddenly started sniffing the air. He took it a step further by taking a sniff from his shoulder.

"Err..."

"I think we have to leave now" Amaranth stated plainly before turning around, but Shirou knew he was nervous. The body language was a dead giveaway.

Shirou wasn't in the mood for taking orders, but he decided to abide by the boy's request. It certainly seemed like things were looking dire right now. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something in his surroundings creeped him out. The ambiance had become somber and he could feel the sunlight fading as the clouds whirled above. Both entered the cafe and Amaranth made a call sign with his hands. Not being used to this, Shirou had to resist the urge to laugh a bit. He only glanced at his fellow Campione as he and his friends followed suit and vacated the premises. Shirou glanced at Ilya and they both left last.

"So I was telling you mom that..." A young voice came from the kitchen as the doors opened and two women came out. One of them a woman in her early 50's and the other an auburn haired female around 23.

"Err, mom... DIdn't you tell me the place was full?"

Momoko Takamachi looked on, bewildered. The place had been full just a few minutes ago. What could've possibly gone wrong now?

"It... It was Nanoha... It was..."

* * *

As soon as they were outside, the entire party was picked by a large limousine. While most of the foreigners didn't seem to care, it struck both Godou, Shirou and their entourages as a bit odd. At least Shirou was used to them. Godou, however, was still uneasy at the luxury lifestyle pervading his fellow god slayers. Naturally, Erica simply pushed him along and he followed her around, as he was the kind to be hapless in these sort of situations.

Godou couldn't help but sigh and remember something rather important before whispering on Erica's ear "We shouldn't be skipping classes" he started "I am not the kind of guy who-" Godou tried to say before he was cut off by a finger shutting his words.

Erica admired Godou, no doubt, but sometimes the boy was too naive "Godou, darling... Listen, there are certain things more important than school, and I have a feeling this is one of them. After all, these people don't seem like the usual mages. It's obvious they are after something, and you know it's your duty to-"

"I know" Godou cut in, sighing even more profoundly than before. Why couldn't he have a normal life. Really...

For his part, Shirou watched as they drove into a suburb opposite the one where his mansion was. He noticed an street that turned East and led towards an area called Kuoh whereas another sign led to a neighborhood named Karakura. Right now, they were heading to what looked like a Western housing development by the of Prydwen Avenue. This made him raise an eyebrow. Prydwen as in Arthur's Prydwen?

The thought struck him like lightning, but he couldn't help but feel he was soon hearing something he didn't want to. What was to happen didn't set off the same alarm bells as a trap, but it had brace written all over it. Having been near death quite a few times, he couldn't help but feel his magic circuits ache as he imagined the idea of having to engage in another heavy fight. Shirou crossed his fingers hoping fighting wasn't a part of whatever mess he had gotten himself into.

As the limousine pulled into the place, Ilya couldn't help but gasp in amazement. Godou had already seen the fortress that this place was, so he wasn't as shocked as the rest of his entourage, who all looked as if they had been hit by a rock from one side of their faces. It fared better than other, similar encounters though. Godou had seen them do worse in the presence of an heretic god, so they were not as shocked as he'd been.

Shirou's sister was enthralled by the huge marble and ivory columns to one side. Erica seemed to be looking at the huge, fortified walls. Liliana was gazing at the high, skyscraper styled windows. Yuri couldn't help but notice the home was both a monument and a convention center appearance wise. As for Shirou, he only wondered the most important thing, after all: the price tag of the damn place. Saying three to eight times his home's prize tag was probably not going to cut it. The place probably cost a nine figure number, especially given how expensive space was in Japan and how the property seemed to stretch towards Kuoh.

He couldn't help but think that perhaps the place stretched into the nearby settlement.

All of them were taken out of their reveries by the voice of one of Amaranth's friends. The boy had blonde hair cut in a military style, with electric blue eyes that seemed almost to spark whenever he set eyes on any of the god slayers. His factions and body seemed close to perfect. He probably was around Shirou's age and slightly taller. Hoisted on his hip was a golden gladius sheathed on its scabbard and he wore an orange shirt with the ensign Camp Half Blood proudly. His face reminded Shirou of Saber: Stern and serious, but understanding. Had he had green eyes instead of blue, Shirou might have found himself drawing comparisons between both... And questioning if somehow he was looking at this world's real version of King Arthur (and whether the ellusive King of the End still fulfilled that criterion anymore).

"Before we arrive, some things first" he spoke with a voice that commaned power and even Shirou and Godou found themselves snapping back to him "This is our HQ. You might see a few things you are not used to... Or are, I don't know how the Campione business works. However, once inside, we will run a very detailed explanation on the current situation and what it entails for all of us."

Well, there went Shirou's luck. He had been hoping things weren't dire and here was one of the foreigners' group telling him that yes, things were dire.

Rolling his eyes, the redheaded magus simply decided to plop down lifelessly on the seat as they pulled into the property, hoping he'd be able to take in everything that was waiting for him.

* * *

Like it or not, bad luck seemed to follow Kurosaki Ichigo like the plague.

He had recovered from what had been the most monumental encounter of his life a few weeks ago only to find himself thrown into the supernatural business again. At least this time he could say it wasn't his business, but they still asked him to come along, and he'd be damned if he was just going to stand there and do nothing for the people saving the world but watch. At least, he could offer some words of encouragement. He wished he had had those during the numerous times the Soul Society was in a danger or his life was on the verge of being ripped away from his body... And that was rather often, to embolden things.

So he had offered to go to Amaranth's estate with his crew and he now noticed that besides the auburn haired foreigner, there were now nearly 6 different factions entering the complex. This was starting to become more complicated each minute that passed.

Rolling his eyes, he swiped a card against the card reader at the intercom outside the gates and stepped into the facility.

This better be important, Amaranth Graves...

* * *

Amaranth right now had everyone assembled in the central waiting room. From the looks he had been given, the Japanese god slayers and their friends or... Love interests... Seemed to either wonder how expensive everything was or were waiting for a trap to be sprung up. Naturally, the South African boy was trying to have them join the task force. He had succeeded with a lot of people, so not having the two most prominent god slayers in Asia sounded like a bit of a cop out to him.

Then there was the second issue they were here for. Queen's little brother had at some point left this world in a rather unexpected way. However, after nearly a decade, his signature had been detected again, and on the island country no less. Now that he had seen Shirou Emiya face to face, he was pretty sure he had hit it in the nail.

Issue number three: They were here looking for another Cruciator. Miyamoto Musashi was among the people in the city, but they didn't know where to start. They had no leads on Japanese heroes. Japan was a land of magical lawlessness. The closest thing to a central government was the History Compilation Committee, and according to Chiron, Odin, the new Augur and the leading Sovereigns of the Crusader's council, they were ineffectual and powerless. In other words, they were a bunch of powerless old men with a few tricks up their sleeves. Their Sybils, which they referred to as Hime mikos were nothing more than novelty. Their own Sybil was far more skilled at wide area tracking and policing. Blaise had already scouted much of Tokyo last Saturday when they arrived and reached the conclusion that there were no sizable threats besides the two god slayers. Between him and most of his sovereign friends, the cabin counselors of Camp Half Blood, the Centurions of Camp Jupiter and the support of the Hunters of Artemis, they had nothing to fear. At least that's what the young Sybil had concluded when he reached out for them.

Perhaps it would do well to explain in depth now... Oh, they were also looking for the artifacts, naturally. The Crusignators were key to their plan, but these relics were rare and hard to find. At least the last battle they had against that hag in Korea had gotten rid of any potential risks. Now it was only a matter of getting them before the TSAB did.

Snapping out of his reverie, he looked at the guests who had taken a seat in the theather styled waiting room. Magnus would probably roll his eyes if he was here, but he didn't have the time to worry since he wasn't here and he wanted to explain this before both god slayers lost their patience.

Hopefully it wouldn't be soon.

Sighing deeply, Amaranth decided to start slowly.

"In a few hours, we will have more guests arriving at this facility..."

Erica, the blonde girl from Italy, if his contact had been right, lifted her hand to ask something.

"Please keep your hand to yourself, I'm not done."

Well, time to explain himself.

"Guys. We are not like you. You might have noticed that we fought a beast unlike anything you've seen before and that your powers didn't seem to work. I will explain that and other things right now."

"Well, first things first. I am Amaranth, current leader of the South African Crusaders. We, the crusaders, also known as Cruciators, are not unlike Campione in terms of power, but all crusaders are fully human. We have no divinity whatsoever. As for what a crusader is... We're basically the reincarnation of ancient heroes of the distant past. Ever heard of Ilya Muromets? He's here. Napoleon? Check..." The auburn haired boy said as he walked towards the group that sat on the right side of the room "These guys over here are my friends. Fellow crusaders." He then gestured to the opposite side "And these guys are demigods. Unlike us, they are of divine descent. Their power is on par with ours. This only occurs rarely, so it is not something to fume over". Finally, Amaranth returned to the center of the small stage in the room "As for why we are here... We want to retrieve a series of artifacts of ancient power. I know this sounds suspicious, but we swear it is for good reasons..."

Erica took this as her cue to interrupt "And the reason you have..."

"The artifacts... These relics... There are two other groups out to hunt them. One of them wants to use them for thinly veiled self servicing goals and the other one wants to take them out of this planet, which will be disastrous if they don't know how they operate. Either way, both relics could destroy the world if handled incorrectly. We've been spending a while trying to collect all of them before they do, but we need assistance to be successful. That's our reason to have visited this island. We want god slayers on our search team" he then sighed as he looked intently at the black haired boy "And we have intel on a crusader that hasn't discovered his or her true nature here" finally, he addressed Shirou "Also, we search for a missing person. This young boy is probably around our age, and he thinks he doesn't belong in this island. He's right, but he..." Amaranth started, looking even more intently at the redheaded god slayer "...belongs in this planet, no matter what he believes."

Before anyone could say anything, and it was obvious someone would, as the room was dead silent after that explanation, the doors opened and another group marched in.

Amaranth only sighed as the spiky, blonde haired figure of Kurosaki Ichigo entered the room.

"Sorry for being late... So you asked to see us, right?" He asked the foreigner as his own group flanked him from behind.

For his part, Amaranth only smirked slightly as he looked back at the demigods and his friends...

"Heh... Took you long enough..."


End file.
